Visually discriminating upper case letters, lower case letters and numbers

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Early literacy and numeracy are crucial for academic success.
• Identifying children with learning difficulties requires reliable assessment tools.
• Rasch measurement models offer a robust framework for developing such tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop Rasch measures for assessing visual discrimination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers.
• To identify specific perceptual difficulties in early literacy and numeracy among young children.
• To create reliable scales for early identification and remediation of learning challenges.

Main Methods:

• Rasch measures were created using the RUMM2020 computer program.
• Three distinct scales were developed: Visual Discrimination of Upper Case Letters (VDUCL), Lower Case Letters (VDLCL), and Numbers (VDN).
• Data were collected from 324 children (aged 4-9 years) in Western Australia, with item fit analysis used to refine the scales.

Main Results:

• Validated Rasch scales were created for VDUCL (18 items), VDLCL (31 items), and VDN (13 items).
• The analysis successfully identified specific letters and numbers that children found easy or difficult to discriminate.
• The resulting linear scales provide a clear indication of children's perceptual strengths and weaknesses.

Conclusions:

• The developed Rasch measures are effective tools for assessing early visual literacy and numeracy skills.
• These measures facilitate the early identification of children struggling with letter and number recognition.
• The findings support targeted interventions to improve foundational literacy and numeracy standards in young learners.