Dyslexia Screening

MAP Reading Fluency provides dyslexia screening for students in K-3 who take English benchmark assessments. The screening model is applied to all benchmark tests automatically. Using a grade appropriate combination of Oral Reading and Foundational Skills measures, an optional Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) measure, and an optional Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) measure, the predictive model will flag students whose performance demonstrates possible risk factors for dyslexia or other reading difficulties.

Continue reading or select a link to jump to a specific section about the Dyslexia Screener.

Dyslexia screener defined: What is a dyslexia screener vs. a diagnostic assessment?

A screener is generally defined as a brief, universal assessment used to identify students who may need follow-up. A diagnostic, usually used for a subset of students, is a deeper-dive assessment or evaluation that is focused on why and how the student struggles.

The MAP Reading Fluency Dyslexia Screener is a screener only. It is not meant to diagnose dyslexia.

Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN)

The Rapid Automatized Naming measure, or RAN, assesses a student’s naming speed, by timing them on retrieving and saying the name for a simple object shown on screen. For students who struggle with early reading skills, low naming speed may be an additional risk factor for difficulties in developing reading fluency.

Example of a screen from the RAN measure:

Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)

The Nonsense Word Fluency measure, or NWF, assesses a student’s ability to pronounce made-up words that follow regular phonetic rules. This measure is required by some states, and it provides valuable data for educators as they begin to screen for dyslexia in students.

Assigning Optional Measures: Rapid Automatized Naming and Nonsense Word Fluency

1. Select Assignments on the dark gray menu bar toward the top of the screen.

2. Select a student, students, or the whole class.

   1. To assign tests to individual students or a group of students, select the checkboxes next to the students' names.

   2. To assign tests to the whole class, select the checkbox next to the Students column header.

   Note: You cannot assign a test to a student who has a test with a status of In Progress unless you choose Start Over to cancel the in-progress test.
3. Select Benchmark.
4. Select a Test Language; English or Spanish. For more information on Spanish tests, see Assessment Content and Test Types.
5. Select Test Subtype: Recommended, Passages Only, or Foundational Skills. For more information about Benchmark test subtypes, see Benchmark Tests.
Note: Recommended is assigned to all students by default. If you want to give this test to all your students and do not want to use the Mouse Check or assign the individual measures Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) or Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), you do not have to make any changes and are ready to begin testing.
6. Optional Additions. If you want to include the mouse skills check, check the box next to Mouse Check. See below for information on this check. If you want to include Rapid Automatized Naming or Nonsense Word Fluency, check the boxes as desired.
7. Select Assign. The assigned test for each student will appear in the Assigned Test column.

Repeat this procedure as needed until all students have the correct assigned test.

Dyslexia Screening results

The Screener Outcomes and Term Summary reports provide a list and overall count of students flagged for possible characteristics of dyslexia. The Screener Outcomes Report includes the Dyslexia Screening flag and serves as a jumping-off point to access student-level data. The individual student report will indicate with a purple flag and text if the student has been flagged.

Dyslexia Screener outcome flag

Students who have been flagged by the Dyslexia Screener will have a purple flag at the beginning of their Individual Student reports and on the Screener Outcomes Report.