(ERA) Early Reading Assessment

BY DONALD D. HAMMILL, NILS A. PEARSON, WAYNE P. HRESKO, AND JOHN J. HOOVER

This quick screening test identifies young children who are significantly behind their age-mates in early reading skills. Easily administered by teachers, special education professionals, school psychologists, or speech pathologists, the ERA is composed of five subtests:

Core Subtests

• Written Word Vocabulary

Measures print knowledge. The child is shown a picture or letter and asked to select one of five words, letters, numerals, or symbols that is most closely related to it.

• Rapid Orthographic Naming

Measures letter–word identification and comprehension. The child is shown a sequence of pictures, letters, numerals, and words and is asked to name as many of these symbols as possible in 60 seconds.

• Silent Orthographic Naming

Measures speed at which children can match letters and words. The child must choose one of five response options that duplicates a given letter or word, completing as many items as possible in 60 seconds.

Supplemental Subtests

• Phonological Awareness

Measures ability to discriminate among and manipulate phonemes. The child deletes phonemes or syllables from words spoken by the examiner.

• Receptive Vocabulary

Measures understanding of common vocabulary. The child points to the picture that matches a word spoken by the examiner. 

The core subtests measure print knowledge that suggests real reading or skills requisite to real reading—competence pertaining to the alphabet, word identification, and word comprehension. The supplemental tests measure well-established oral language correlates of reading.

Scores from the core subtests can be combined to form an Early Reading Index. Highly reliable and free of floor and ceiling effects, this composite score effectively identifies children with reading problems.