Is my child a low-progress reader? A quick free test.

Without a thorough assessment of your child's reading and related skills, it is difficult to say whether s/he is behind in reading or not. We can, however, provide a rough idea of whether your child might be a low-progress reader or not and, hence, if it would be worth your while to have your child assessed formally, if you follow these instructions carefully:

• Print out two copies of the sample reading passage based on my WARP test (Wheldall Assessment of Reading Passages) - click here. One copy is for your child to read and the other is for you to use to score his/her reading.
• Ask your child to read his/her copy of the passage as follows: "I'd like you to read this passage as quickly and as carefully as you can. I'll start recording when you read the first word."
• Using a stopwatch or a wristwatch with a second hand, begin timing when your child says the first word in the passage. On your copy of the passage, mark the last word read at the end of one minute and tell your child that s/he can now stop reading.
• If your child stops or struggles with a word, wait three seconds, tell your child the word and mark one error.
• If your child omits a word, score 1 (one) error.
• If several consecutive words are omitted (e.g. a line is skipped), subtract the total number of words omitted, and score 1 (one) error.
• If your child inserts a word, do not count the inserted word, and score 1 (one) error.
• If the word order is reversed, score 1 (one) error.
• To calculate the number of words read correctly, subtract the total number of errors from the total number of words read in one minute.
• Send an email to multilit@multilit.com stating the total number of words your child read correctly in one-minute and the year and term your child is in at school e.g. Year 3 Term 2. Please note that we can only accept your scores and return the results via email.

We will then get back to you with advice regarding whether we would recommend that you have your child formally assessed or not. Please note that this can only be a rough estimate of whether your child is behind in reading and should definitely not be taken as a definitive statement on your child's level of reading skill. Note: we can only provide this estimate for students in Year 2 or above.

©2007 MULTILIT Pty Ltd (“MULTILIT”). All rights reserved. The contents of this material in whole or in part remain the copyright of MULTILIT. MULTILIT is a research-based initiative of Macquarie University. All unauthorised uses, including copying, reproduction or distribution in any form or by any means are strictly prohibited.

Permission is granted to the user to only use this material for personal educational use or use in schools with State/Territory accreditation (“Accredited Schools”). Other commercial use, hiring or lending, or other use as part of any commercial, not-for-profit, or fee paying program of instruction or tuition not carried out by an Accredited School is strictly prohibited unless you have a licence from MULTILIT for this purpose, and then only on the terms of the licence. Any unauthorized use may incur a breach of copyright penalty as well as being a breach of licence.