Scoring for Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words
Score one point for each sound (phoneme) the child has analyzed and recorded that is
numbered 1 to 37.
Additions and omissions:
If a letter does not have a number underneath it in the scoring standards then it
receives no score (even if a preceding letter has been omitted). Additions do not affect
scoring as long as numbered letters are included.
tody
todae
today Score 3 points
today Score 4 points
Capital letters:
Capital letters are acceptable substitutions for lower case letters and vice versa.
Substitutions
Given what is being observed in this task it makes sense to accept a response when
the sound analysis has been a useful one, even though the child has used letters, which can
record the sound, but in this particular case the spelling is incorrect. As a general principal,
substitute letters are acceptable if, in English, the sound is sometimes recorded in that
way.
Consonant substitutions, which count as correct, are those like:
“k” and “c”
“s” and “c”
“s” and “z”
skool
school
tace
take
Vowel substitutions, which count as correct, are:
cum
bak
come
bake
c
see
haz
has
iz
is
bas (schwa)
bus
caming (schwa)
coming
As children try to analyze the sounds in vowels they are likely to substitute unusual analyses
of diphthongs. A substitution, which does not alter the scoring:
todae
today
Children may replace one vowel with a letter that represents a vowel made in a neighboring
area of the mouth. Given that the children are reading English, score the “e” for “y”
substitution as acceptable and the “a” for “e” substitution as unacceptable.
vare
very
Changes in letter order:
Where the child has made a change in letter order take one mark off for that word.
ma (am) 2-1=1
gonig (going) 5-1=4
Reversed letters:
Reversed letters are NOT correct if they could represent a different letter.
dig
bog
big
dog
Revised 8/07