Early Reading Assessment

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Screens young children for reading problems

Donald D. Hammill, EdD, Nils A. Pearson, PhD, Wayne P. Hresko, PhD, and John J. Hoover

Three core subtests (Written Word Vocabulary, Rapid Orthographic Naming, and Silent Orthographic Efficiency) measure print competence pertaining to the alphabet, word identification, and word comprehension using both silent and oral formats.
Supplemental oral language subtests measure important non-print correlates of reading: Phonological Awareness measures the ability to discriminate among and manipulate phonemes, and Receptive Vocabulary measures understanding of common vocabulary.
The Early Reading Index (ERI) is a normative score formed by combining the results of the core subtests. The most reliable score on the test, the ERI is the most clinically useful score on the ERA and has neither floor nor ceiling effects at any age level.

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Normed on a representative sample of 1,001 children from eight states.
Reliability coefficients for all subtests exceed .80. The reliability for the ERI is .94, indicating near-perfect reliability.
Evidence is presented to show that the ERI can be used effectively to screen for poor readers. The results from a binary classification analysis showed a sensitivity index of .81 and a specificity index of .83; only five false positives were identified. The value of .92 reported for the ROC curve is considered excellent.

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