13  Letter Naming Fluency

13.1 Task Description

Children are shown a page of assorted lowercase and uppercase letters, arranged in five rows of ten. They are asked to name as many letters as they can within 45 seconds.

13.2 Construct

The Letter Naming Fluency task measures children’s fluency in accessing their alphabetic knowledge.

13.3 Item Development

13.3.1 English

All the letters in the English alphabet were included. Letters were written in both upper and lower-case format and were randomly organized in a 5x10 grid.

13.3.2 Spanish

All the letters of the Spanish alphabet were included except for the four letters rarely used in the Spanish language: “q” (qu), “w” (doble v, uve doble), “x” (equis), and “y” (y griega). Letters were written in both upper and lower-case format and were randomly organized in a 5x10 grid.

13.4 Scoring

Participating children were presented with a 5x10 grid containing 50 letters and were asked to name as many letters as they could within 45 seconds. The final score was calculated as the number of correctly named letters.

13.5 Samples

Table 13.1: Demographic Characteristics of Samples for the English and Spanish Letter Naming Fluency Tasks
Characteristic
English
Spanish
K
N = 2,932
G1
N = 258
K
N = 1,362
G1
N = 202
Timepoint



    Fall 2023 460 (18%) 0 (0%) 433 (38%) 0 (0%)
    Fall 2024 2,157 (82%) 258 (100%) 699 (62%) 202 (100%)
    Unknown 315 0 230 0
Administration Format



    Not applicable 2,932 (100%) 258 (100%) 1,362 (100%) 202 (100%)
Race



    American/Alaskan Native 101 (3.8%) 12 (4.7%) 45 (3.5%) 8 (4.0%)
    Asian 187 (7.0%) 34 (13%) 48 (3.7%) 9 (4.5%)
    Black/African American 241 (9.1%) 40 (16%) 19 (1.5%) 1 (0.5%)
    Not reported 329 (12%) 47 (18%) 460 (35%) 61 (30%)
    Other 622 (23%) 30 (12%) 302 (23%) 38 (19%)
    White 1,182 (44%) 93 (36%) 424 (33%) 85 (42%)
    Unknown 270 2 64 0
Ethnicity



    Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 1,727 (71%) 146 (57%) 1,137 (95%) 197 (98%)
    Intentional nonreport 31 (1.3%) 2 (0.8%) 5 (0.4%) 1 (0.5%)
    Not Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 686 (28%) 107 (42%) 58 (4.8%) 3 (1.5%)
    Unknown 488 3 162 1
Gender



    Female 1,233 (50%) 141 (56%) 625 (52%) 111 (56%)
    Male 1,257 (50%) 113 (44%) 573 (48%) 88 (44%)
    Unknown 442 4 164 3
Home Language



    English 1,570 (63%) 231 (91%) 181 (14%) 0 (0%)
    Spanish 809 (33%) 8 (3.1%) 1,101 (85%) 202 (100%)
    Other 96 (3.9%) 15 (5.9%) 6 (0.5%) 0 (0%)
    Unknown 457 4 74 0
English Proficiency Label



    (Re-)Classified Proficient 85 (3.8%) 7 (2.8%) 100 (8.7%) 25 (14%)
    English Learner 743 (33%) 25 (9.9%) 919 (80%) 154 (85%)
    English-only 1,410 (63%) 220 (87%) 129 (11%) 2 (1.1%)
    Unknown 694 6 214 21
Ever IEP/504 165 (8.4%) 19 (8.9%) 104 (9.6%) 16 (9.3%)
    Unknown 965 45 284 30

13.6 Score distribution

Figure 13.1: Score Distribution of the English and Spanish Letter Naming Fluency Tasks

13.7 Criterion Validity Evidence

13.7.1 Sample

Table 13.2: Demographic Characteristics of the Concurrent Criterion Validity Evidence Samples for the English and Spanish Letter Naming Fluency Tasks
Characteristic
English
Spanish
K
N = 60
K
N = 139
Timepoint

    Spring 2024 60 (100%) 139 (100%)
Race

    American/Alaskan Native 1 (1.7%) 6 (4.3%)
    Asian 8 (13%) 11 (7.9%)
    Black/African American 8 (13%) 6 (4.3%)
    Not reported 12 (20%) 37 (27%)
    Other 7 (12%) 22 (16%)
    White 24 (40%) 57 (41%)
Ethnicity

    Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 32 (53%) 122 (88%)
    Intentional nonreport 1 (1.7%) 1 (0.7%)
    Not Hispanic/Latin(o/a) 27 (45%) 15 (11%)
Gender

    Female 34 (57%) 77 (55%)
    Male 26 (43%) 62 (45%)
Home Language

    English 43 (72%) 29 (21%)
    Spanish 14 (23%) 110 (79%)
    Other 3 (5.0%)
English Proficiency Label

    (Re-)Classified Proficient 4 (7.7%) 12 (9.4%)
    English Learner 8 (15%) 87 (68%)
    English-only 40 (77%) 29 (23%)
    Unknown 8 11
Ever IEP/504 1 (5.3%) 12 (9.2%)
    Unknown 41 9
    Unknown
1

Letter Naming Fluency English was correlated with the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th Edition (Martin and Brownell 2011). Letter Naming Fluency Spanish was correlated with the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, 4th Edition, Bilingual Edition (Martin 2013) test.

Table 13.3: Concurrent Criterion Validity Correlations for the English and Spanish Letter Naming Fluency Tasks
English
Spanish
All
All
Grade n r [CI] n r [CI]
K 60 0.60 [0.41, 0.74] 139 0.88 [0.83, 0.91]