A free 3-minute check that shows where the reading sticks. No timer.
A child can read slowly for different reasons: single words are still hard work, each word is sounded out again in a sentence, the reading is right but word by word, or the place is lost before the end. Each one needs a different push. Do this check together. It takes about three minutes, and there is no timer.
How to do it: do not teach and do not correct. Just listen, and tap what your child could do. Nothing you tap is sent anywhere.
Show your child this screen. They read each word. Tap a word only if your child says it all at once, with no sounding out loud. Count quietly how many are read wrong: you are asked at the end.
The same words, now in sentences. Your child reads each one. Tap a sentence if no word in it was sounded out loud.
Your child reads this sentence once:The red hen and the big pig ran up the hill.Then ask: “Who ran up the hill?” Tap each line that was true.
One more thing. In part A, how many of the ten words did your child read wrong, even after sounding them out?
Sounding out takes all of a new reader’s attention. There is none left for the next word, or for how the sentence should sound. So each word comes out alone. Is that normal? For a child who has just learned to sound out, yes. Reading turns smooth when short words come all at once and the eyes take in two or three words together. That comes from easy words read again and again, not from harder words, and not from a timer.
It is not a diagnosis, and it is not a test for dyslexia or anything else. It does not measure reading speed. Slow, careful reading is common in a child who is just starting. If your child is seven or older and reading is still very slow and tiring, or you are worried for another reason, tell their teacher what you saw and ask what the school has noticed.
More help: Why can’t my child blend sounds? A free check · Why does my child mix up b and d? A free check
