DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. It is an assessment used to measure and regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills of students. On this page you will find basic information about what we are measuring in each of the DIBELS indicators.
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) The student is presented with one page of upper- and lower-case letters arranged in random order. They have one minute to name as many letters as they can.
First Sound Fluency (FSF) The teacher says a word and the student responds by saying the first sound he/she hears in the word. For example: The teacher would say "cat" and the student would respond by saying "/c/", the letter c sound.
Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF) The student is told a word and they have to "karate chop" each sound he/she hears. For example: The teacher would say "cat" and the student would respond by saying "/c/ /a/ /t/".
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) The student is given a page of nonsense words (words that are not found in printed reading material) to read. The student can produce the sounds of the letters for each word, produce the sounds of the letters and re-read the word they sounded out or read the whole word. By the end of the year, the student's goal would be to read the entire word to the teacher. Some examples of nonsense words include: gam, bim, nuf.
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) The student is presented with one page of upper- and lower-case letters arranged in random order. They have one minute to name as many letters as they can.
First Sound Fluency (FSF) The teacher says a word and the student responds by saying the first sound he/she hears in the word. For example: The teacher would say "cat" and the student would respond by saying "/c/", the letter c sound.
Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF) The student is told a word and they have to "karate chop" each sound he/she hears. For example: The teacher would say "cat" and the student would respond by saying "/c/ /a/ /t/".
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) The student is given a page of nonsense words (words that are not found in printed reading material) to read. The student can produce the sounds of the letters for each word, produce the sounds of the letters and re-read the word they sounded out or read the whole word. By the end of the year, the student's goal would be to read the entire word to the teacher. Some examples of nonsense words include: gam, bim, nuf.