The use of technology in the classroom was covered in depth by educational researchers all over the world, but as these technologies change at an unprecedented speed so do the modes of delivering teaching, thus making it a permanent topic of interest. This study aims at investigating the role of technology in assessing phonological skills in children with learning disabilities. Phonics instruction is often delivered using multimedia resources, but assessment commonly involves a reading / writing type of task or some sort of oral examination. For non-verbal students or for students who experience difficulty with fine motor skills such an evaluation tool is restrictive and it might not offer an accurate assessment of their skills. For some of them, like students with autistic spectrum disorders, learning technology might even act as a tool for augmentative or alternative communication, their only way of proving their understanding of the curriculum. To better understand whether the use of multimedia technology actually increases the accuracy of phonological skills assessment we propose a comparative study that investigates the results obtained by means of formal assessment tools and technology enhanced assessment tools. A number of 30 students attending "Constantin Paunescu" Special School were assessed using both standard tests (NEPSY II Phonological Processing subtest) and nonstandard tests (PAST - Phonological Awareness Skills Test), followed by teacher-made technology enhanced phonological assessment tools. The results suggest technology enhanced assessment tools promote a higher level of engagement with the learning task which, in turn, increases the accuracy of the assessment by simply keeping them focused and giving them alternative ways to complete tasks.

phonological awareness; technology; assessment; special needs