Errors
Errors are recorded as the child is reading a passage. Oral reading fluency is based on speed and accuracy, and thus it is critical to identify both words read correctly and words read incorrectly. As the child is reading, the following miscues should be marked as errors. The most common error occurs when a child misreads a word (mispronunciations). Other miscues counted as errors include substitutions, skipped words, hesitations (a delay of more than 3 seconds), and flip-flops (two or more words are reversed, and both words are counted as errors). Some oral reading miscues are not counted as errors, such as when the child repeats a word (repetitions), immediately self-corrects an error (self-corrections), adds a word to the passage (insertions), or pronounces a word differently due to local language variations (dialect). If an entire line of text is skipped, no errors are recorded but the child should be immediately redirected to the beginning of the line.