• Typical development (TD) of language describes children that pass language learning milestones at a rate similar to most other children
• Language impairment (LI) refers to a condition where a child fails to develop language skills at a rate similar to most other children
• Phonological awareness (PA) is the set of skills used for processing speech sound structure
• Reading comprehension is the ability of the child to understand the context of the material they are being exposed to
• Decoding skills is the process of making sense of written print words and connects it to the spoken word that it represents
• Curriculum-Based Measurements (CBMs) are varied assessments of skill administered by teachers over a period of time, such as one school year

• These tools are the product of decades of research, and function as highly reliable and valid assessments of performance

• Measurements provide clear information about a student’s abilities, which allows teachers to easily assess skill development over time

• The simple interpretation of CBMs, compared to standardized test results, allows each student’s performance to be easily shared with parents, tutors, etc.

• An example of what a second-grade CBM might look like:

• A student reads aloud from a short, age-appropriate passage while the teacher makes note of the number of errors the student produces
• This data can be graphically represented and allows teachers to clearly see how a student’s reading fluency progresses over time

• CBMs can be especially helpful for special needs students, or students otherwise at risk for falling behind in reading

– Scores for students facing abnormal reading development can be utilized to determine the most effective intervention methods for each student, as well as to clearly assess reading skills compared to typical levels