GLAD
Grade Level Assessment Device
for Children with Learning Problems in Schools
Jayanthi Narayan · National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped (NIMH), 1997 / Reprint 2003
Clinical Reference Document
Administration Instructions · Scoring Procedure · Item-Bank Structure (Class I–IV) · Interpretation
GLAD — Clinical Reference
1. Overview of the Tool
The Grade Level Assessment Device (GLAD) is a curriculum-based achievement tool developed at NIMH to identify
primary-school children (Class I–IV) whose academic performance falls below their attended class level. It was
designed for use directly by classroom/primary teachers — not only specialist psychologists — to pinpoint which class
level a child is actually functioning at in English, Hindi, and Mathematics, and to characterise the processing style
behind the child's errors (reading, writing, and arithmetic error patterns).
GLAD does not attempt to diagnose the underlying cause of poor performance on its own. Rather, it establishes (a)
the child's functional grade-equivalent level in each subject, and (b) a structured qualitative picture of how the child
processes academic tasks — which together inform whether a medical referral, resource-room support, or a
straightforward instructional adjustment is indicated.
The test items are drawn from standard ICSE, CBSE, and Andhra Pradesh State Board curricula (Minimum Levels of
Learning), so item content mirrors ordinary classroom exercises the child would already be familiar with in format.
1.1 Two-Format Structure
• Format I — the test booklets themselves: class-wise worksheets in English, Hindi, and Mathematics with
accompanying scoring sheets.
• Format II — the teacher's structured observation schedule, completed alongside Format I: background/socio-
demographic data, a brief soft-neurological-signs screen, and a qualitative processing/error checklist, plus a one-
page Comprehensive Summary Report.
2. Administration Instructions
2.1 Who Should Be Tested
• A child who has consistently failed — across at least two term examinations plus intervening unit tests — in one
or more subjects.
• Test at the class level in which the child has been failing; the teacher may use judgement to start a level lower, or
move a level higher if the child performs at an independent level.
2.2 Precautions
• Put the child at ease before starting — explain that the exercise is to help him/her do better in studies, and that
there is no cause for anxiety.
• Avoid evaluative feedback during testing ('right', 'wrong', or hints toward the answer); if the child answers only
with prompting, this should be recorded in Format II rather than treated as an unprompted pass.
• Each question should be asked no more than twice; if the child still does not respond, move to the next item
rather than dwelling.
• For Class I children who cannot yet read instructions independently, the teacher reads the instruction aloud, as is
routine classroom practice.
• Where the teacher reads a passage aloud for the child to listen to, care should be taken that pace, accent, and
intonation remain natural and standard.
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GLAD — Clinical Reference
2.3 Session Structure
• English, Hindi, and Mathematics need not be completed in a single sitting — the teacher may phase testing
across up to three sessions.
• However, once a given subject area (English, Hindi, or Maths) is started, it should be completed in that sitting
rather than split further.
• Record start and finish time on the scoring sheet — time taken is informative of the child's working speed — but
the child should never be rushed.
• The child should be allowed to attempt as many items as possible; because syllabus coverage varies across
schools, do not stop a child at the first missed item — sequencing is a guide, not a strict basal/ceiling cutoff.
2.4 Format II Administration
Section I (background/history) and the visible items of Section II should be completed before Format I testing begins.
Section III (processing observations) is completed simultaneously with — not after — Format I administration, since it
depends on watching the child work in real time.
3. Scoring Procedure
3.1 Item and Worksheet Scoring
Each worksheet displays a Total Score (TS) at the top (e.g., TS = 5×1=5, or TS = 10×2=20), reflecting the number of sub-
items and points per sub-item. The teacher scores each correct response against the corresponding item number on
the class/subject Scoring Sheet, which lists every item in sequence alongside space to record marks.
3.2 Percentage Conversion
Because the number of items varies by class and subject (based on curricular content at that level), raw scores are not
compared directly across classes or subjects. Instead, convert each subject's raw score to a percentage of the
maximum possible score for that class/subject before making any classification or comparison.
3.3 Dictation Items
Worksheets requiring writing-to-dictation present a word list at the end of the section, immediately before the
scoring sheet. Words are pre-graded from easy to difficult in two sub-sections; the teacher selects the required
number of words from the list for the child's class level.
3.4 Item Structure Index by Class
The table below indexes which worksheet numbers within each subject call for a verbal/gestural response versus a
written response, and which worksheets are the dictation exercises. (Some worksheet numbers are reconstructed
from a degraded scan of the original manual table — cross-check exact numbering against the original booklet before
use.)
Class I Verbal-response items Written-response items Dictation worksheet(s)
Worksheets 1.1–1.2 series Worksheets 2.7–4.1 (letters,
English 3.8, 3.9
(picture pointing/naming) words, sentences)
Hindi Worksheets 1.1–4.3 Worksheets 5–7.1 6.1, 6.2
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GLAD — Clinical Reference
Class I Verbal-response items Written-response items Dictation worksheet(s)
Worksheets 2.2, 2.3, 2.9, 3.2–
Mathematics Worksheets 1–2.1, 2.4–2.8, 3.5 —
3.4, 3.6–3.9
Class II Verbal-response items Written-response items Dictation worksheet(s)
English Worksheets 1–4 Worksheets 5–9.2 11, 12
Hindi Worksheets 1–6 Worksheets 7–10 9
Mathematics Worksheets 12–15 Worksheets 1–11 —
Class III Verbal-response items Written-response items Dictation worksheet(s)
English Worksheets 1 & 2 Worksheets 3–9 4
Hindi Worksheets 1–4 Worksheets 5–9 9
Mathematics Worksheets 1–3 Worksheets 4–10 —
Class IV Verbal-response items Written-response items Dictation worksheet(s)
English Worksheet 8 Worksheets 1–7 —
Hindi Worksheets 1–4 Worksheets 5 onward —
Mathematics — Worksheets 1–10 —
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GLAD — Clinical Reference
4. Format II — Structured Teacher Observation
4.1 Section I — Socio-Demographic & Background Data
Captures name, age, sex, address, class, schooling history (exposure/duration/current attendance), family income,
socio-economic status, parental education, family history of similar learning problems, history of class repetition,
marks obtained in the last three subject-wise tests, and the class level proposed for testing.
4.2 Section II — Soft Neurological Signs Screen
A brief, teacher-administered screen for signs warranting medical referral:
• Item 1–3 (directly observable): physical disability, vision, hearing — each rated normal/impaired or
absent/present.
• Item 4 — Laterality: hand, leg, and eye preference, each assessed over 3 trials (an object placed at body midline
for hand; a ball kicked from midline for leg; a viewing tube/kaleidoscope for eye), with the side used ≥2 of 3
times recorded as preferred.
• Item 5 — Speech: clarity (clear/not clear) and intelligibility (meaningful/not meaningful).
• Item 6 — Balance: standing on one leg (~1 minute), hopping, and walking a line forward/backward/sideways for
7–10 steps, each rated appropriate / not able to do / clumsy.
• Item 7 — Coordination: finger-to-nose with eyes open (7.1) and eyes closed (7.2); pencil/spoon grip (7.3);
maintaining rhythm/steps to music (7.4).
Medical referral is indicated when: any impairment is found on items 1–3; item 4 shows mixed (non-consistent)
laterality preference; or more than half of items 5–7 show anything other than appropriate performance.
4.3 Section III — Processing / Error Observation Checklist
Completed while the child works through Format I. Separate checklists exist for English and Hindi, each covering:
• Oral reading — e.g., finger-tracing, sounding out before blending, omissions/substitutions/additions, ignoring
punctuation, posture, pacing (too fast/slow), volume, reading distance, mispronunciations, requesting the
examiner's help.
• Silent reading — lip movement, finger-tracing, reading distance, posture, frequent gaze breaks.
• Reading comprehension — needing prompts, needing questions repeated or translated, referring back to the
text versus refusing to answer.
• Writing — left-to-right orientation, margin/line use, overwriting, posture, macro/micrographia, mixed case,
omitted diacritics, spacing, punctuation, letter/word reversals, spelling errors (with Hindi-specific equivalents
such as omitted half-letters and matras).
• Arithmetic computation — number/symbol misidentification, laterality-related errors, place-value errors, finger-
counting or tally-mark strategies, carrying/borrowing omissions, errors transferring rough work to fair copy,
decimal-point placement.
• Arithmetic reasoning — needing story sums read aloud or needing the required operation explained.
A final open item allows the teacher to note any other unusual or peculiar behaviour observed.
4.4 Comprehensive Summary Report
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GLAD — Clinical Reference
The final one-page summary consolidates percentage scores in English, Hindi, and Mathematics into a matrix, keyed
to Independent / Instructional / Frustrational functioning (see Section 5), alongside a findings-and-recommendations
field and any referrals to be made.
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GLAD — Clinical Reference
5. Interpretation & Classification
5.1 Functional Level Cut-offs
Percentage Score Functional Level
Independent level — the child can function at this class level
70% and above
without support
Instructional level — the child needs teaching support at this
40% – 69%
class level
Frustrational level — this class level is currently beyond the
Below 40%
child; test one level lower
5.2 Using the Classification
• If percentage on the current class level falls below 40%, drop down and re-test at the next lower class level in
Format I to locate the child's true independent/instructional band.
• Score English, Hindi, and Mathematics independently — a child may show different functional levels across
subjects (e.g., instructional-level Maths with frustrational-level English), which is itself diagnostically useful.
• Class averages on GLAD in field trials fell around 40–60%, somewhat lower than teacher-assigned class averages
(50–70%) — treat the cut-offs as functional/programmatic markers rather than strict norm-referenced standard
scores.
5.3 Integrating Format II
• Cross-reference the Section III ticks with the subject-wise percentage: a child scoring at frustrational level with
multiple reading-specific ticks (e.g., letter reversals, omitted words) points toward a reading-specific processing
difficulty rather than global cognitive delay.
• Any medical-referral triggers from Section II should be flagged and acted on independent of the academic score
— sensory or soft-neurological findings can explain (and may need to be addressed before) academic
remediation.
• Note family history, socio-economic status, and schooling continuity (Section I) — a discrepancy explained mainly
by inconsistent schooling or environmental disadvantage is interpreted differently from one appearing despite
adequate exposure.
5.4 Terminology and Scope
The manual deliberately favours the broad term 'learning problem' over 'learning disability' (US usage) or 'learning
difficulty' (UK usage), since GLAD is a class-equivalence and processing-style screening tool, not a diagnostic
instrument for specific learning disability. A frustrational-level finding with a marked qualitative error pattern should
prompt referral for comprehensive psychoeducational assessment rather than a stand-alone SLD diagnosis from GLAD
data alone.
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5.5 Re-testing
Because GLAD is curriculum-linked and quick to administer, it is suited to periodic re-administration to track a child's
progress across an academic year once remedial support has begun, rather than being used only as a one-time
screening measure.
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6. Item-Bank Structure — Class-wise Task Types
GLAD's actual worksheets are curriculum-linked, image- and passage-based test content (picture stimuli, graded
reading passages, spelling/dictation lists, arithmetic problem sets). Because this is a complete, actively published
assessment instrument, full worksheets are not reproduced here verbatim — administration should always use the
original booklet/scoring sheets to preserve standardisation. What follows is the task-type structure per class and
subject, to orient scoring and interpretation.
6.1 Class I
English
• Picture pointing/naming (objects, actions) — assesses receptive vocabulary and expressive labelling
• Visual letter discrimination (matching a target letter among similar-looking distractors)
• Alphabet and simple word/letter-sound worksheets leading into simple sentence-level items
• Dictation of single words (worksheets 3.8–3.9), graded easy → difficult
Hindi
• Parallel structure to English: picture naming, akshar (letter) discrimination, simple word and sentence-level items
• Dictation of words (worksheets 6.1–6.2) with matra-level graded difficulty
Mathematics
• Counting and writing numerals; number recognition (circle-the-number-named tasks)
• Concept of zero (picture-based: identifying the set with zero items)
• Number sequencing forward/backward (e.g., say numbers backward from 10 to 1, then 20 to 1)
• Coin/currency recognition
6.2 Class II
English
• Simple sentence reading and comprehension items
• Vocabulary and basic grammar exercises (nouns, simple tenses)
• Dictation worksheets (11, 12) at word/short-phrase level
Hindi
• Word- and sentence-level reading and writing exercises paralleling the English structure
• Dictation worksheet (9)
Mathematics
• Basic operations (addition/subtraction with carrying and borrowing)
• Place value exercises (units/tens/hundreds)
• Simple word-problem (arithmetic reasoning) items
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GLAD — Clinical Reference
6.3 Class III
English
• Plural formation, gender (masculine/feminine word pairs), past tense, opposites, and degrees of adjective —
short fill-in-the-blank grammar items
• Dictation at sentence level (worksheet 4)
• Vowel-pair fill-in-the-blank spelling items
• A graded reading passage (short narrative) followed by yes/no and multiple-choice comprehension questions
Hindi
• Grammar and vocabulary items parallel in structure to the English Class III set
• Dictation worksheet (9)
Mathematics
• Multi-digit operations including multiplication and simple division with place-value demands
• Word problems requiring identification of the correct operation
6.4 Class IV
English
• Comprehension of longer graded passages; grammar items at a more complex sentence level
• Reading fluency and accuracy observation embedded in the same worksheets
Hindi
• Comparable higher-complexity grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension items
Mathematics
• Multi-step computation and reasoning items appropriate to Class IV curricular content (fractions, decimals, and
multi-step word problems as per board syllabi)
6.5 Scoring Sheets
Each class/subject section closes with a dedicated Scoring Sheet listing every worksheet's sub-items in sequence, the
mark value for each (shown in brackets against the item number), and blank fields to enter the child's score —
enabling direct tallying into the Total Score and subsequent percentage conversion described in Section 3.
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7. Quick-Reference Summary
Component Purpose
Class I–IV worksheets in English, Hindi, Maths + scoring sheets — establishes grade-
Format I
equivalent functional level per subject
Format II, Section I Background/socio-demographic history
Format II, Section II Soft neurological signs screen — triggers medical referral
Format II, Section III Real-time processing/error observation during Format I administration
Comprehensive Summary Report Consolidated Independent/Instructional/Frustrational matrix + findings/referrals
Score Band Level Action
≥ 70% Independent No support needed at this class level
40% – 69% Instructional Teach with support at this class level
< 40% Frustrational Drop down and re-test at next lower class level
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