1. Ready, Set, Read!
What Parents Need
to Know and to Do
to Ensure Their
Children are Ready
to Learn to Read

2.  Discriminate and identify the 44 sounds
in our spoken language
 Distinguish separate words in a sentence/
syllables in words
 Identify rhyming words
 Recognize common beginning, ending, and
middle sounds of words
 Identify syllables in words
 Manipulate sounds in words to create new
words
Phonological Awareness

3. The 44 Sounds in the English Language
5 Short-Vowel Sounds
short /ă/ in apple
short /ĕ/ in elephant
short /ĭ/ in igloo
short /ŏ/ in octopus
short /ǔ / in umbrella
18 Consonant Sounds
/b/ in bat /k/ in cat and kite
/d/ in dog /f/ in fan
/g/ in goat /h/ in hat
/j/ in jam /l/ in lip
/m/ in map /n/ in nest
/p/ in pig /r/ in rat
/s/ in sun /t/ in top
/v/ in van /w/ in wig
/y/ in yell /z/ in zip

4. 7 Digraphs
/ch/ in chin /sh/ in ship
unvoiced /th/ in thin voiced /th/ in this
/hw/ in whip * /ng/ in sing
/nk/ in sink
* (wh is pronounced /w/ in some areas)
6 Long-Vowel Sounds
long /ā/ in cake long /ē/ in feet
long /ī/ in pie long /ō/ in boat
long /ū/ (yoo) in mule long /ōō/ in flew
3 r-Controlled Vowel Sounds
/ur/ in fern, bird, and hurt
/ar/ in park
/or/ in fork
Diphthongs and Other Special Sounds
/oi/ in oil and boy
/ow/ in owl and ouch
short /ŏŏ/ in cook and pull
/aw/ in jaw and haul
/zh/ in television

5. What do Kindergarteners
have to learn?
Are we sending them ready for
Kindergarten??

6. DIBELS
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early
Literacy Skills
Quick one minute assessments that let us know if our
students are “on track” to be readers. Help schools
provide enough instruction to get students back on
track as readers.
 Helps schools see where they need to focus to help
our children learn to read at each grade
 Helps us see where we as parents can help at home to
help our children learn to read

7. Phonological awareness must be mastered
before children are able to conquer
phonics.
Phonics is the skill of looking at letters and
producing the sounds the letters make. If
children do not have sound awareness
mastered, they will struggle with phonics.
A struggle with phonics will result in
having trouble reading.
Phonological Awareness…

8.  When children enter Kindergarten in Alabama,
they take a diagnostic test called DIBELS.
 This test checks to see if children are “on track”
to be readers.
 Kindergarteners are tested on alphabet
knowledge and phonological awareness.
 The research (insert link to research) tells us that
if these two things are not in good shape,
children may have trouble learning to read.
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early
Literacy Skills

9.  Letter Naming Fluency
 Initial Sounds Fluency
 Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
Kindergarten DIBELS Tests

10. What is Letter Naming Fluency
(LNF)?
 It is a one minute assessment
 It is an indicator of risk of reading problems
 It is not one of the 5 areas identified by the National Reading
Panel and Reading First as one of the critical areas of
reading
 It is tested in fall, winter, spring of K also fall of first grade
 Students should be able to name 25 random letter names in
one minute by the end of K

11. Probe 1
c c N u Q M u h S i
Letter
Naming
n b e N F f o a K k
g p k p a H C e G D
b w F i h O x j I K
Fluency
x t Y q L d f T g v
T V Q o w P J t B X  Target goal of at least
Z v U P R l V C l W 40 by spring of
Kindergarten
R J m O z D G y U Y
Z y A m X z H S M E  Student identifies
q n j s W r d s B I upper- and lower-case
letters for 1 minute
r A E L c c N u Q M
Total: ____/110

12. What is Initial Sound Fluency
(ISF)?
 One minute assessment given at beginning and middle of K
 Outcome goal of identifying 25 first sounds in words in one
minute by middle of K.
 Example:
◦ Shown four pictures and told the picture names, the student can
point to the one that begins with the correct sound given. Point to
the one that begins with mmmm

13. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills
University of Oregon
Initial Sound Fluency -Sample
Example
This is mouse, flowers,
pillow, letters (point to each
picture while saying its name).
Mouse begins with the
sound /m/ (point to the mouse).
Listen: /m/, mouse.
Which one begins with
the sounds /fl/?

14. What is Phoneme Segmentation
Fluency (PSF)?
 One minute assessment given middle of K, end of K and in
beginning, middle, and end of first grade
 Outcome goal is to be able to separate words into individual
sounds by the end of K and to be able to do at the rate of
35 sounds per minute
 Reaching outcome goal critical skill for becoming a good
reader and speller
 Continue to test through first grade, goal doesn’t go up

15. Example
 Say these specific directions to the
student:
 I am going to say a word. After I say the word,
you tell me all the sounds in the word. So, if I
say, “sam,” you would say /s//a/ /m/.
 Let’s try one (one-second pause). Tell me the
sounds in “mop”. If the student says /m/ /o/
/p/, you say, very good. The sounds in “mop” are
/m/ /o/ /p/.

16. Administration Look at this word (point to the
first word on the practice
Directions probe). It’s a make-believe
Practice word. Watch me read the word:
Items /s/ /i/ /m/ “sim” (point to
sim lut
each letter then run your finger
fast beneath the whole word). I
can say the sounds of the
letters, /s/ /i/ /m/ (point to
each letter), or I can read the
whole word “sim” (run your
finger fast beneath the whole
word).
Your turn to read a make-believe
word. Read this word the best you
can (point to the word “lut”). Make
sure you say any sounds you know.

17.  Parents can download samples of DIBELS
tests to guide them in helping their
children with the skills assessed.
 It is important that parents focus on
helping their children learn the skills
measured and not “teach them the test”.
https://dibels.uoregon.edu/

18. What about time?
 Time to play (games, games, games!)
◦ 15-20 minutes daily
 Time to work (practice, practice, practice!)
◦ 20-30 minutes daily
 Time to celebrate (brag, brag, brag!)
◦ 10-15 minutes daily