Get The Nonword Decoding Test

The Diagnostic Spelling Test – Nonwords (DiSTn) tests a person's knowledge of English sound-letter-rules. Proficient spellers use two key processes: translating sounds to letters using sound-letter-rules and their knowledge of spellings of whole words.

Blending Nonwords measures the ability to synthesize sounds to form nonwords. Segmenting Nonwords measures the ability to segment nonwords into phonemes. Memory for Digits measures the ability to repeat numbers accurately. Nonword Repetition measures the ability to repeat nonwords accurately.

The DiRT is composed of 105 items (ie., nonwords) which assess the knowledge of over 60 letter-sound-rules. The reader reads the nonwords and the tester records the responses. A detailed analysis allows the tester to assess which of the 60 letter-sound-rules a person can apply in the reading of nonwords.

An exercise from Scholastic that tests students' mastery of sound-spelling relationships. Students are presented, then read five short lists (short vowels, digraphs, long vowels, other vowels, multi-syllabic words) of nonsense words aloud while teachers check against their correct pronunciation.

We would say that, actually, it is very useful to be able to read non words because when we have to read multisyllabic words we don't know, we break them up into chunks that initially may have no meaning. Take the word 'frantic'. If we did not know how to read it we would have to break it up to 'fran' and 'tic'.

Researchers and educators use nonsense words – also called nonwords or psuedowords – as a tool to assess phonetic decoding ability. These nonsense words are letter sequences that follow regular phonetic rules and are pronounceable, but have no meaning — for example, bif or yom or mig.

The Norm-Referenced assessment has two "core" subtests (Word Identification and Spelling) and one "supplemental" subtest (Sound-Symbol Knowledge) and a composite score (called the Fundamental Literacy Index). On the Informal assessment, the scores are used for clinical and instructional purposes.

Dyslexic children often experience difficulty with phonetic decoding. Researchers and educators use nonsense words – also called nonwords or psuedowords – as a tool to assess phonetic decoding ability.

The Nonword Reading Test is an easy-to-use diagnostic test of phonological decoding skills, taking around 5-10 minutes per students to administer. As the name suggests, the words in this test are not real words.