phonics intervention Archives

A Parent’s Guide to the DIBELS Reading Assessment

phonicsorg on May 24, 2024

Reading assessments are essential tools for identifying and addressing reading challenges in children. One assessment known as DIBELS stands out for its effectiveness in gauging early literacy proficiency.

In this article, we explain the DIBELS reading assessment and answer common questions that parents of struggling readers may have.

What is the DIBELS Reading Assessment?

DIBELS is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills assessment. It’s a widely used reading screener and benchmark assessment designed to evaluate reading skills in children. DIBELS was developed in the 1970s by researchers at the Institute for Research and Learning Disabilities at the University of Minnesota. It became more widely available in 2002 through the University of Oregon. DIBELS is currently in the 8th edition, with the most recent update in 2023.

What Does DIBELS Assess?

DIBELS consists of six different subtests. Each subtest targets a specific literacy skill for a specific age group.

These measures are:

Letter Naming Fluency — assesses knowledge of alphabetical letters (K-1st grade)
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency — evaluates phonemic awareness (K-1st grade)
Nonsense Word Fluency — objectively measures decoding skills (K-3rd grade)
Word Reading Fluency — measures word decoding skills (K-3rd grade)
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) — assesses reading fluency and accuracy (1st-8th grade)
Maze — measures reading comprehension (2nd-8th grade)

DIBELS plays a crucial role in screening for early reading difficulties, ultimately guiding decisions on who may need additional reading instruction and what types of reading instruction are necessary. Revealing insights into students’ literacy skills, DIBELS helps educators tailor reading interventions to meet individual needs and monitor student progress over time.

What Happens During a DIBELS Assessment?

DIBELS is similar to any other learning assessment in the classroom. Most schools make sure teachers conduct a “benchmark” DIBELS assessment for each child at least 3 times per year to monitor progress. This includes a beginning of year (BOY), middle of year (MOY) and end of year (EOY) assessment. Students receiving additional reading support may have monthly progress monitoring check-ins to see how well they are progressing in their literacy intervention.

Each DIBELS assessment is short. Five of the subtests are one minute in duration and one subtest (Maze) is 3 minutes long. The facilitator (a teacher or reading specialist) explains each exercise one-on-one with the child. They then closely monitor the child’s answers and record the results. The scores are simple, straightforward, and easy for teachers to understand.

DIBELS Scores and Risk Categories

A child’s scores indicate their risk category—that is, how “at risk” they are for struggling to meet expected reading goals.

Negligible Risk: The child shows no risk and is on track or ahead of their reading development.
Minimal Risk: The child shows low risk and is meeting benchmark standards.
Some Risk: The child is showing signs of difficulty with one or more aspects of reading development and should receive “strategic support.”
At Risk: The child is struggling significantly below standard reading development and needs “intensive support.”

Several different factors can contribute to a child’s DIBELS results. It’s important to talk with your child’s teachers, medical professionals, or a reading specialist if they score below the benchmark.

Is DIBELS the Best Reading Test for Kids?

DIBELS isn’t technically a “test” that your child can pass or fail. Rather, it’s an assessment that provides educators and specialists with information about where your child is currently in their reading development.

While there are many reading assessments today, DIBELS is a go-to option that’s used around the world. Since it screens for key areas of reading ability, it’s fairly accurate for parents and families looking to find answers for their child’s reading struggles.

Using DIBELS Assessments for Reading Intervention

The DIBELS assessment is instrumental in spotting reading difficulties early on. Some children need reading intervention to remediate setbacks or literacy struggles.

There are three tiers of reading instruction:

Tier 1 involves the instruction that all students receive as a whole class.
Tier 2 pinpoints specific reading challenges among students and usually involves small-group interventions.
Tier 3 signifies a need for individualized, intensive instruction to address noticeable setbacks.

The DIBELS assessment results inform instructors and parents on the next steps for intervention because it highlights each student’s strengths and areas for improvement. For example, a student struggling with word reading fluency might receive focused practice in decoding skills, leading to significant improvements in reading fluency and comprehension.

What Can Parents Do to Help Struggling Readers?

Depending on your child’s DIBELS scores, there are several ways you can support their reading development.

Literacy Support from Professionals

If your child is on track, continue with the existing reading instruction methods and make sure to provide additional challenges—this will maintain progress.

For kids who need targeted interventions, you can work closely with their teacher to implement recommended strategies to strengthen their identified weaknesses.

If your child needs intensive support, consider turning to an outside tutor, literacy specialist, or reading program that can offer individualized, structured, systematic instruction. The DIBELS assessment is not intended to replace a comprehensive or diagnostic reading assessment.

Reading Development at Home

You can (and should) also support your reader at home.

Read with your child to foster language comprehension and enjoyment of reading.
Use educational tools like flashcards, phonics games, and interactive reading apps to make learning fun and engaging.
Establish a reading routine.
Create a calm, distraction-free reading environment so you and your child can practice together.
Encourage your child to explore a variety of genres to build their interest and skills.

Websites like Phonics.org offer valuable resources and program reviews to help you find effective tools and strategies for at-home literacy practice.

Monitor Your Child’s Progress

Continuous monitoring and support are crucial for your child’s reading progress, especially if they’re at risk. Regularly assess their skills using DIBELS or other assessments to track improvements and identify any new challenges.

Equally as important, communicate with your child’s teacher to ensure that intervention attempts are effective and then adjust strategies as needed. By staying proactive and involved in your child’s reading progress, you help them develop strong literacy skills that will serve them well throughout their academic career and beyond.

Reading and Phonics Support for Parents

By understanding the components and significance of DIBELS, you can actively participate in your child’s educational journey. Whether that involves a reading intervention, addressing a learning disability, or course-correcting the instructional approach, proper assessment and screening are the first steps in advocating for your child’s potential.

For more information and support related to child literacy, explore parent resources at Phonics.org. Let’s empower children to become confident and proficient readers, unlocking a world of knowledge and opportunities for life.

Phonics Intervention for Struggling Students

phonicsorg on March 22, 2024

Phonics is a must-have foundation for reading instruction—especially for children just learning to read. Even more importantly, kids struggling to read often benefit from explicit instruction through some type of phonics intervention.

To help your child gain the knowledge and skills they need to become great readers, here are some things you need to know about phonics intervention.

What is a Phonics Intervention?

A phonics intervention is a specialized, targeted instructional program for people struggling to build essential literacy skills.

Typically, phonics interventions focus on reading concepts, building a solid foundation from the ground up. An intervention can be suitable for young children first learning to read or even older students who have yet to develop these skills.

A reading intervention should focus on improving the weaknesses or skill deficits that a person has. Some interventions may need to focus on improving letter-sound correlations, while others may focus on blending letters and sounds together to decode or read words. All reading interventions should teach concepts explicitly and provide ample time for practice until the concept is mastered.

There are several recommended characteristics of reading interventions that focus on phonics instruction:

Explicit: The phonics concepts, correlations, and rules are explained and modeled clearly by an instructor so the student feels free of ambiguity.
Systematic: Each new skill is introduced in a logical, proven sequence, beginning with the most basic one and then building upon each component.
Cumulative: In addition to instruction being systematic (sequential), it’s also cumulative, meaning that while learning builds upon itself, the previous skills are continually practiced alongside new ones so that the student can achieve mastery.
Multi-Sensory: It’s common that students who need phonics intervention also need a different approach to learning sound-letter correspondences. Reading interventionists and educators often engage students in activities incorporating multiple senses—sight, sound, touch, and physical movement—to diversify learning experiences and encourage retention.
Synthetic: This type of phonics focuses on using individual letters and sounds to read and spell words. This differs from the analytic phonics that uses ‘word families’. It has been shown to be the most efficient method of teaching children to read and spell.

With these core principles built into a phonics intervention, students are more likely to achieve reading proficiency.

How Phonics Interventions Work

Phonics or “reading” interventions work by providing struggling readers with the tools they need to overcome specific challenges, all within a supportive learning environment.

Educators typically determine a child’s phonics intervention needs using assessments and observation. There are three tiers educators currently use to decide the required level of intervention.

Tier 1: Instruction is provided to the whole class using the explicit and systematic approach. Phonics screeners and benchmark assessments throughout the year can identify which students may be at risk of reading difficulties and who need more attention.

Tier 2: Phonics instruction targets a small group of struggling students who would benefit from more specialized teaching. Children are often grouped based on their skill level.

Tier 3: Instruction must be given at the individual student level, sometimes incorporating an IEP (individualized education program) for students with specific learning disorders such as dyslexia.

In all three tiers, effective phonics instruction focuses on developing the following skills.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate segments of sound in spoken language. The most important phonemic awareness skills are:

Blending: Combining letter sounds to read, or sound out, a word.
Segmenting: Breaking a word into its individual phonemes (sounds).
Syllabication: Breaking a longer word into its syllables or parts.

These skills can be practiced orally (just sounds) or with letters. Practicing these skills with letters has shown to be almost twice as effective when teaching someone to read and spell.

Sound-Symbol Correlation

Once a child has an awareness of phonemes and how they’re different, they can begin to learn sound-symbol correspondence. This is the connection between speech sounds and letters. This important skill requires a lot of practice and modeling. Through this, the brain develops connections between visual and verbal components (also known as Paired Associate Learning)—a sophisticated and incredible ability unique to humans.

Pronunciation

Sometimes a new reader has difficulty pronouncing or articulating specific speech sounds in a language. For example, the sound of /r/ can be difficult for many children to pronounce accurately. When a sound is difficult to articulate, it can be difficult for a learner to read and spell using that sound. Reading interventions can incorporate the practice of accurate speech sounds. This should be guided by a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) who has expertise in this area.

Explicit Instruction

It cannot be emphasized enough: direct or “explicit” instruction is the way to go when teaching phonics. This is especially true for children who are struggling with these complex skills. Learning to read is not a natural process—it must be taught, guided, practiced, and mastered.

Modeled and Guided Decoding Practice

Decoding is the way we “sound out” words in print. As soon as students begin acquiring letter sounds the instructor can guide them through decoding their first words. These words are typically simple, high-frequency words such as ‘me’ or ‘it,’ or CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words like ‘mom’ or ‘cat.’

Modeling and practice are important at this stage of intervention because 1) the student is starting to gain confidence by overcoming new challenges and 2) the instructor is instilling an “I do, we do, you do” process, equipping the student to incorporate these skills for life. Guidance and practice should continue until the skill is easy and automatic for the learner. The number of repetitions and amount of practice will depend on the profile of each specific learner.

Decoding at the Word Level

As a student continues to master foundational skills, he or she is encouraged to practice decoding words. The goal is to equip the child to eventually decode on their own so that they can overcome new, unfamiliar words in print, growing into a competent reader.

Reading Decodable Texts

Once a student has learned to decode words quickly and accurately, they can begin to read phrases or even whole sentences. Decodable texts and books support new readers in applying their word-reading knowledge to continuous texts.

Does My Child Need Phonics Intervention?

If your child is struggling to read, they’re not alone. National reading scores continue to decline among elementary students today, while teachers do all they can to incorporate more effective phonics instruction.

Phonics interventions are crucial for students who cannot meet basic reading proficiency. But it’s even more important that children receive the interventions they need as soon as you notice a significant struggle. Ideally, when necessary, an intervention begins before third grade. Talk with your child’s teachers and healthcare providers to learn about what intervention options are available.

More Phonics Resources for Students Learning to Read

If you’re concerned about your child’s literacy development, we encourage you to reach out to a phonics teacher or reading specialist to address it. In the meantime, to find more tips on phonics instruction to help your child learn to read, explore our parent resources at phonics.org.