Reading Assessment Tool “LexiMetr” for Russian-Speaking Primary School Students

The present article describes the creation and standardization of the “LexiMetr” reading assessment tool, designed to evaluate reading skills in Russian-speaking primary school students. A distinguishing feature of the “LexiMetr” test is its linguistic validity. Namely, the test comprises two texts to read out-loud, controlled for their objective complexity based on a range of psycholinguistic features. The test is created in a user-oriented digital application for tablets. Analysis of reading data from 281 children revealed that texts differed in their difficulty despite their comparable linguistic complexity. Nevertheless, a further study with experimental data from 49 children showed no differences in reading performance between tablets and paper sheets. We report normative data of reading speed and text comprehension accuracy across grades 1 to 4 that were collected in 333 typically developing children. A high correlation of reading data from the test “LexiMetr” (rho = 0.95) with the Standardized assessment of reading skills (Kornev 1997, Kornev, Ishimova 2010) demonstrates the concurrent validity of the test as a diagnostic instrument for reading disorders in Russian-speaking primary school students. Currently, the test is recommended as a screening tool for reading skills assessment. However, it is planned to refine the test by integrating sensitivity and specificity metrics for the future in speech-language pathology and education as a diagnostic tool. Analysis and normative data are freely available at OSF platform https://osf.io/nkxz7/, where a link to the app will be available.