Screening for support-oriented diagnostics in the school entry phase
With Poldi and Willi through Magicland
Children start school with very different prerequisites. At school enrollment, around eight months before the children start school, teachers should get an impression of what skills their future pupils already have and where support may still be needed. Schools now receive support with this difficult task since school enrollment 2020. The level of development of basic skills such as phonological awareness, knowledge of letters and sounds, knowledge of quantities and numbers, counting, working memory, working posture and graphomotor skills is assessed in a playful way.
Poldi, the app elf, accompanies the little ones on their adventures in Magicland. In order to open the treasure chest, the children have to solve certain tasks. They help Willi the mole to find his molehill again or rescue suitcases with gold coins from the owl. After each task, the children receive keys with which they can open the treasure chest at the end of the journey.
Information on the project
Based on empirical studies on the predictive ability of so-called precursor skills for school skills, sub-areas of child development were selected which, viewed longitudinally, have effects on later school success, and for which there have already been tried and tested task types for recording the respective ability. On this basis, a first version of a screening procedure for school starters was developed, which was tested for the first time during school enrollment in 2019 and repeated at the start of school in 2019.
Project schedule
Implementation of the pilot version of the screening at 2 points in time (2019)
As part of the 2019 school enrollment process
Fall 2019
Analysis of the pilot version
Feedback on experiences from the pilot schools
Data analysis
Review of the predictive validity of the screening at 2 points in time
End of 1st grade (2020)
End of the 2nd grade (2021)
Analysis of the pilot version
Feedback on experiences from the pilot schools
Data analysis
Implementation
Implementing institutions and project management:
University of Graz; Section of Developmental Psychology
Head: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Karin Landerl
University of Vienna; Research, Teaching and Practice Outpatient Clinic of the Faculty of Psychology
Head: Ass. Prof. Dr. Ursula Kastner-Koller / Ass. Prof. Dr. Pia Deimann
Publications:
Jöbstl, V., Kastner-Koller, U., Deimann, P., Steiner, A.F., Haller, B., Krötzl, G., & Landerl, K. (2023). Ist mein Kind bereit für die Schule? Entwicklung eines förderorientierten Screenings für die Schuleingangsphase [Is My Child Ready for School? Development of a Support-Oriented School Enrollment Screening]. Psychologie in Österreich 43(2), 132-139.
Jöbstl, V., Steiner, A.F., Deimann, P., Kastner-Koller, U., & Landerl, K. (2023). A-B-3—Associations and dissociations of reading and arithmetic: Is domain-specific prediction outdated? PLoS ONE 18(5), e0285437. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285437
Kastner-Koller, U., Kaltenberger, A., Jöbstl, V., Landerl, K., Steiner, A. F., Wagner, V., & Deimann, P. (2023). Zur Vorhersage des schulischen Lern- und Arbeitsverhaltens durch domänenübergreifende Vorläuferfähigkeiten. Lernen und Lernstörungen 12(3), 115-125. https://doi.org/10.1024/2235-0977/a000412
Jöbstl, V., Steiner, A.F., Kastner-Koller, U., Deimann, P., Kaltenberger, A., Wagner, V., & Landerl, K. (2022). Entwicklung eines förderorientierten Schuleingangsscreenings. Erste Befunde zur
prognostischen Validität. Frühe Bildung, 11, 194-200. https://doi.org/10.1026/2191-9186/a000585