Arkansas Rapid Naming Screener

The assessment is recommended to supplement the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) for the Universal Screening of all kindergarten through grade two (K-2) students. It can also be use to asses older students who are struggling readers. It is based on guidelines for informal screening of rapid naming skills provided by Nancy Mather and Barbara J. Wendling in Essentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention.

The AR-RAN Practice Page, Form A, and Form B should be printed on a quality color printer. Before administering the screener, the examiner should check the quality of the colors. If red looks like orange, or blue appears purple, the scores may be skewed because 1) the words orange and purple have more than one syllable and it takes more time to say them; and 2) students will spend extra time contemplating which color to say.

The informal screening is timed using a count up timer. Administer Form A and Form B and combine the times. To identify a student struggling with rapid naming, student data for a grade level within the school should be compiled and ranked in order to determine the students performing in the at-risk level. The suggested cut-point would include students scoring in the bottom twenty percent.

*Discontinue rule: If a student makes more than four errors on Form A, discontinue the assessment. The student would automatically filter to the bottom of the ranking.