Purpose
The Adapted Bryant Test assesses a child’s knowledge of letter-sound relationships by asking the child to read up to 50 pseudowords (non-words).
Instructions
Explain that these are not real words. They are alien words spoken by children from another planet. They speak a different language to us.
Encourage the child to sound out the words if they can, but to make a real word. Do not just say the sounds of the letters.
If the child finds it too difficult and makes more than 10 consecutive errors, pause the assessment. However, if they are happy to keep reading, they can do so. It might give you an idea of how they approach decoding the words. If you do stop, ask the child to look at the rest of the words and read out any that can be decoded.
Scoring
Score the word as correct if the child pronounces the made-up words as shown in the pronunciation guide provided.
Write down the error if the child makes a mistake (for example, reads “buf” as “but”). Then score out of 50.
The scoring diagnostic guide provided outlines the phonics subskills covered in each group of questions. It will assist you identify the letter-sound relationships the child still needs to learn.
Reading alien words
Sounding out unknown words with Professor Tom Nicholson.