As an active partner of your child’s education team, we recognize that you will be better equipped to support your child’s learning at home if you know exactly what is being taught in the classroom, and why these skills are important for your child’s future. Here are some descriptions of learning areas that your child will be working on this year.

Rapid Letter Naming

Rapid Letter Naming assesses your child’s ability to quickly recognize and name uppercase and lowercase letters. Recognizing and naming letters is an important part of learning to read. Example: Letter b appears on the screen and the child says, “b.”

Rapid Vocabulary

Rapid Vocabulary assesses your child’s ability to quickly recognize and name pictures of certain objects. Vocabulary knowledge reflects children’s past experiences and growing knowledge of the world around them, and is one of the most important predictors of later reading success. Example: A picture of a ball appears on the screen and the child says, “ball.”

Rapid Letter Naming

Rapid Letter Naming assesses your child’s ability to quickly recognize and name uppercase and lowercase letters. Recognizing and naming letters is an important part of learning to read. Example: Letter b appears on the screen and the child says, “b.”

Rapid Vocabulary

Rapid Vocabulary assesses your child’s ability to quickly recognize and name pictures of certain objects. Vocabulary knowledge reflects children’s past experiences and growing knowledge of the world around them, and is one of the most important predictors of later reading success. Example: A picture of a ball appears on the screen and the child says, “ball.

Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness assesses your child’s ability to identify and play with the sounds in spoken words. This skill is an important first step toward the understanding that letters and groups of letters represent the sounds of language. The score shown is the total score for all four Phonological Awareness assessments (Syllabication, Onset-Rime, Alliteration, and Rhyming I). If your child received a score that is on track, he or she has a good understanding of the sounds of language at this point in the year.

Syllabication
Syllabication assesses your child’s ability to separate a word into syllable parts. Example: The teacher says the word pencil. The child claps and says “pen,” and then claps and says “cil.”

Onset-Rime
Onset-Rime assesses your child’s ability to put together the beginning sound (or sounds) of a word with the rest of the word. Example: The teacher says the sounds /cl/ and /ap/. The child says “clap.”

Alliteration
Alliteration assesses your child’s ability to identify if two words begin with the same sound. Example: The teacher asks if mom and mitten begin with the same sound.

Rhyming I
Rhyming I assesses your child’s ability to identify if two words rhyme. Example: The teacher asks if cat and hat rhyme.