Dibels Literacy Skills Assessment Form - Kindergarten printable pdf download

Kindergarten

All students at our school are screened for reading difficulties three times a year using the Dynamic

Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Next. This is one assessment that helps us identify

students who may need extra help in learning the skills needed to become a strong reader. Your child’s

Fall

Winter

Spring

First Sound Fluency

_______ (10)

_______ (30)

Letter Naming Fluency

_______

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

_______ (20)

_______ (40)

Nonsense Word Fluency

_______ (17)

_______ (28)

Composite Score

_______ (26)

_______ (122)

_______ (119)

Instructional

Numbers in parentheses indicate expected performance

The results of this assessment indicate:

Your child is on track to becoming a strong reader

Your child may need some extra help with basic reading skills

Teacher Comments:

First Sound Fluency (FSF)

The understanding that words are made up of separate sounds is called “phonemic awareness.” Phonemic awareness is a critical

skill in learning to read. The FSF subtest assesses your child’s ability to isolate the beginning sounds in words. Your child is given a

word and asked to say the first sound in the word (“What is the first sound you hear in the word ‘man’?” Child “/m/”).

Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)

On the LNF assessment, your child is shown a page of random letters and asked to name the letters. The number of letters your

child names correctly in one minute is counted. Although the ability to name letters is a strong predictor of later reading achievement,

studies have demonstrated that it is possible for children to learn letter-sound correspondence without naming letters. Therefore,

naming letters is not a powerful instructional target and benchmark goals are not provided.

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)

Understanding that spoken words can be broken down into individual sounds and then blended back together to form a word is an

important skill in learning to read and write. On the PSF assessment, your child is given a spoken word and asked to say each sound

in the word (“Tell me the sounds in the word ‘mop’?” “Child: /m/ /o/ /p/”).

Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)

Children with strong phonics skills know the sounds of letters and are able to blend them together to form words. On the NWF

assessment, your child is shown a “nonsense word” containing 2 or 3 letters (e.g. bim, ob) and asked to read the word. Your child is

given credit for each correct sound and added credit if he/she reads the word without saying each individual sound. Nonsense words

are used so that the teacher knows your child is connecting the sound to the letter rather than recognizing the word by sight.

Composite Score

The Composite Score is a combination of the assessments and provides the best overall estimate of your child’s reading proficiency.

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Dibels Literacy Skills Assessment Form - Kindergarten

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