# An Innovative Screener for Reading and SLI targeting Kindergarten through 3rd Grade Students

> **NIH NIH R43** · AMIRA LEARNING, INC. · 2021 · $256,580

## Abstract

As highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for a usable online screener for children with
language and reading disorders to support early reading instruction. In the absence of adequate screening,
disorders are under-diagnosed and detected too late, resulting in adverse academic outcomes. While research
shows that digital tools can successfully screen for language disorders such as SLI (Grammaggio), and
reading disorders such as dyslexia (Amira Reading Screener), currently no practical, cost-effective and reliable
screening method exists which integrates information about a child's language and reading skills.
Our goal is to create a reliable & valid digital screening process amenable to implementation by schools. The
goal is to identify at-risk children by combining the predictive role of language impairments (expressed via
grammar) with a fully-automated early reading assessment (expressed via reading aloud). By directly
comparing the results of both screeners, the research aims to establish the parameters for a unified screener
able to operate within the critical constraints of usefulness, namely: modest test time to avoid lost instructional
time; an extremely low false positive rate; minimal requirements for teacher training, and; easy access from
both the classroom and home. One asset is a sample of children participating in an ongoing longitudinal study
with well-documented diagnosis of SLI and reading disorders in addition to extensive experience with
Grammaggio. The second asset is a well-documented innovative technology for teaching reading to children
(Amira) coupled to a proven reading screener (Amira Reading Screener). Aim 1 is to determine if the
combination of a language screener and a reading screener yields increased accuracy for identification of
children with reading disorders. Aim 2 is to identify possible correspondences of reading errors identified by
Amira with grammatical errors evaluated by Grammaggio. Four groups of children will be recruited from an
existing longitudinal sample: SLI, reading disordered, both SLI and reading disorders, and control children.
Screening outcomes will be validated against an external gold standard, the existing measurement protocol in
R01DC001803 that provides standardized language and reading assessments of participating children.
Successful completion of the aims will determine whether a combined electronic screener can reliably, validly,
and cost-effectively flag students at-risk for specific disorders. Our prediction is that we will improve our
understanding of the overlaps and interactions between reading and language disorders, leading to earlier and
more effective treatments of these disorders. The team proposing this work benefits from the field expertise of
Rice's team in ongoing data assessments and includes key personnel from Amira Learning. The combination
of assets and expertise is well-positioned to make significant progress. Preliminary data collection in advance
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10154495
- **Project number:** 1R43DC018766-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** AMIRA LEARNING, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Angel
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $256,580
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10154495

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10154495, An Innovative Screener for Reading and SLI targeting Kindergarten through 3rd Grade Students (1R43DC018766-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10154495. Licensed CC0.

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