Dyslexia Screening Test - Junior (DST-J)

A. Fawcett and R. Nicolson

The revised Dyslexia Screening Test now covers primary and secondary school-aged children in two separate assessments. The division of the DST into two tests, DST - Junior and DST - Secondary, include extra subtests which are particularly relevant to the age group.

The DST-J provides a profile of strengths and weaknesses which can be used to guide the development of in-school support for the child.

New theoretical developments in dyslexia research suggest that it should be possible to identify both slow learners and potential dyslexic children at the age of 5 or 6 years, in time for greater reading support. The DST-J is designed for early identification of children who are at risk of reading failure so that they can be given extra support at school.

The DST-J replaces the best selling DST and reflects changes in theory and practice since this initial publication with additional subtests, validation studies and case histories and scoring software.

The DST-J consists of the following subtests:

• Rapid Naming
• Bead Threading
• One Minute Reading
• Postural Stability
• Phonemic Segmentation
• Two Minute Spelling
• Backwards Digit Span
• Nonsense Passage Reading
• One Minute Writing
• Verbal Fluency
• Rhyme         NEW
• Vocabulary    NEW