What is LNF?
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) is a brief, direct measure of a student’s fluency in naming letters. LNF assesses a student’s ability to recognize individual letters and say their letter names. Using standardized directions, the assessor presents a page of uppercase and lowercase letters arranged in random order and asks the student to name the letters. The assessor marks letter names that are read incorrectly or skipped. The total score is the number of correct letter names that the student says in 1 minute.
LNF is included in Acadience® Reading K–6 as an indicator of risk. LNF is a strong and robust predictor of later reading achievement but is not a powerful instructional target, i.e., focusing instruction on letter names should not be expected to lead to better reading outcomes.
For students at risk, the primary instructional goals should be developing phonological awareness skills and gaining knowledge about the alphabetic principle.
Overview
|
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skill |
None |
|
Administration Time |
1 minute |
|
Administration Schedule |
Beginning of kindergarten to beginning of first grade |
|
Score |
Number of letters named correctly in 1 minute |
|
Wait Rule |
If the student does not name a letter within 3 seconds, mark the letter and say the correct letter name. |
|
Discontinue Rule |
No letters named correctly in the first row |
Scoring Rules and Tips
The student receives 1 point for each letter correctly named in 1 minute.
- Do not mark letters named correctly.
- In the font used on LNF, the lowercase L may look like an uppercase I. Give the student a point for naming the lowercase L as either an L or an I. Do not give the student a point for calling it a number 1. Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect, articulation delays or impairments, or for pronunciations due to speaking a first language other than English.
- Mark any letter the student names incorrectly, skips, or does not name within 3 seconds.
- The first time the student says a letter sound rather than the letter name, say Say the letter name, not its sound. This reminder may be used only once.
- Make note on any letter that had been previously marked and was self-corrected within 3 seconds. Count the self-corrected response as correct.
- Mark any row the student skips. Do not count the row when scoring.
- The first time the student says a letter sound rather than the letter name, say Say the letter name, not its sound. This reminder may be used only once.
For more information please see the Assessment Manual located on the
Acadience® Reading K–6 download page.