Assessment is an important part of a Response to Intervention (RtI) model, as educators need to determine when students need more intensive instruction (and also, when they no longer require intensive instruction).

The Martin and Pratt Nonword Reading test assesses phonological recoding skills: the ability to sound out regular words from grapheme–phoneme correspondences. These are used when approaching new and unfamiliar words to work out what they are.

Students having difficulty with phonological recoding may be relying on compensatory strategies when reading. When approaching a new or unfamiliar word, compensatory strategies include:

• using visual cues, for example, looking at pictures to predict words or using a few letters in a word to predict what the word is;
• using context, choosing a word that would make sense in a sentence and putting that word in; or
• relying on memory, trying to remember what a word is rather than using a generative strategy of looking at the word, breaking it down into its parts, sounding it out and working out the word from there.

These compensatory strategies can be successful, particularly at a younger age where exposure to words is limited and there are a lot of pictures available.

As texts become more complex, there are fewer pictures, too many words to guess successfully and limitations to the number of new words that can be stored in memory so generative strategies are essential to work out new and unfamiliar words.

Within an RtI model, the Martin and Pratt Nonword Reading Test can be used for screening, progress monitoring, and instructional decision-making, regarding the key literacy skill of phonological awareness.