For LETRS Customers: PADDI FAQ

For LETRS Customers: PADDI FAQ

Overview

The Phonemic Awareness Development: A Diagnostic for Instruction (PADDI) is an informal diagnostic tool that helps educators determine where to begin phonological and phonemic awareness instruction.

Developed by Jane Ashby, Jill Lang, Melissa Farrall, Katherine Beenen, Lucy Hart Paulson, and Carol Tolman (2026), the PADDI is appropriate for learners from Pre‑K through adulthood. The PADDI focuses on the phonemic awareness skills most predictive of reading and spelling success, especially those required for orthographic mapping.

This article answers some FAQs for the PADDI.

What is the PADDI?

The PADDI, an informal diagnostic tool, helps you determine where to begin phonological awareness instruction with your students.

It focuses on phoneme-level skills and is designed for learners from Pre-K through adulthood, making it appropriate for classroom instruction, intervention, and adult literacy settings.

There are two diagnostic assessments, the PADDI-Kindergarten through Adult (PADDI-KA) and the PADDI-Foundations (PADDI-F):

• PADDI-KA: This assessment identifies where to begin phonological awareness instruction for students of any age. It includes a deletion task to assess the learner’s ability to isolate and manipulate speech sounds in spoken words.

• PADDI-F: This assessment is intended for preschool students, or other learners who have difficulty on the PADDI-KA practice items. It includes segmentation and blending tasks, to assess the learner’s ability to isolate and combine speech sounds in spoken words.

What does the PADDI help me understand?

The PADDI gives you insight into how well students can work with sounds at the phoneme level. It focuses on skills that are closely connected to reading success, including:

• Accuracy with phoneme-level tasks

• Automaticity, or how quickly and consistently students respond

• Phoneme deletion, which is strongly linked to reading and spelling skills

These skills support orthographic mapping, which allows students to recognize words automatically for fluent reading and accurate spelling. Both PADDI assessments appear in three forms (A, B, C) so educators can monitor progress over the course of the school year.

How is the PADDI designed?

The PADDI reflects current research on phonological awareness and reading development.

It is designed to:

• Focus on phoneme-level work, rather than broader phonological tasks

• Emphasize skills that directly support reading and spelling

• Reduce time spent on syllable and onset-rime tasks, which are not primary instructional targets in English

• Include guidance for interpreting the scores of English learners and students with language variations

When should I use the PADDI?

The PADDI is a diagnostic tool that guides where to begin targeted instruction.

Educators can administer the PADDI to:

• Identify gaps in phonological awareness (PA) skills, then group students for PA instruction

• Provide key information for setting instructional goals, planning specific lesson activities, and monitoring progress

The PADDI is suitable for students diagnosed with dyslexia and specific learning disorders.

Who can use the PADDI?

The PADDI is designed for a range of educators, including:

• Classroom teachers

• Reading interventionists

• Special education teachers

• Literacy specialists

Where can I learn more?

The LETRS online platform provides guidance on how to administer the PADDI and how to use results to inform instruction.

To learn how the PADDI compares to the PAST assessment, see PADDI and PAST: What are my options?