Ages: 5 through 8 years Testing Time: Kindergarten--30-45 min.; Early Elementary--15-30 min. Administration: Group or individual
The TOPA-2+, a revision of the popular Test of Phonological Awareness, is a group-administered, norm-referenced measure of phonological awareness for children ages 5 through 8 years. The scale, which can also be administered individually, has demonstrated reliability and the test yields valid results that are reported in terms of percentile ranks and a variety of standard scores (e.g., scale scores, Normal Curve Equivalents) that can be selected based on the preference of the examiner and the purpose for which the results are to be used (e.g., identification; reports to local, state, or federal agencies). The TOPA-2+ has two versions, a Kindergarten version and an Early Elementary version, that measure young children's ability to (a) isolate individual phonemes in spoken words and (b) understand the relationships between letters and phonemes in English. The latter skill was not assessed by the original TOPA and is the reason the PLUS was added to the title. One version, the Kindergarten TOPA-2+, can be administered any time during the kindergarten year but is likely to be most sensitive to individual differences during the second half of the year. This version uses two different item types to assess phonemic awareness. Ten Initial Sound-Same items require children to mark which of three words begins with the same sound as a target word. Ten Initial Sound-Different items require children to mark which word in a group of four words begins with a different first sound than the other three. A child's total score for phonemic awareness is the number correct on each item type added together. The Letter-Sounds subtest requires children to mark which letter, from a set of four, corresponds to a specific phoneme. The subtest has 15 items, and the child's score for the test is the total number correct. The Early Elementary vers... (more)
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