According to AIMSweb, when is the phoneme segmentation task administered for kindergarteners and first graders?

• A. Kindergarteners: winter and spring; First graders: fall and winter
• B. Kindergarteners: fall and winter; First graders: spring and summer
• C. Kindergarteners: spring only; First graders: winter only
• D. Kindergarteners: winter only; First graders: fall only

Answer: (A)

This question tests when AIMSweb schedules the phoneme segmentation task for young learners. Phoneme segmentation fluency measures how well a child can break a spoken word into its individual sounds, and the administration windows are set to align with students’ developing phonemic awareness and instructional progress.

For kindergartners, this task is typically given in the winter and again in the spring. By winter, many kindergartners have had enough exposure to phonemic activities to produce reliable data, and a spring administration helps track growth over the year. Beginning in fall would often yield unstable results, and a winter-only window wouldn’t capture spring progress.

For first graders, the task is administered in the fall and in winter. By first grade, students generally have more foundational phonemic awareness, so starting in fall provides a baseline, with a winter check to monitor growth before moving on to more advanced tasks later in the year.

So the correct schedule is: kindergartners in winter and spring; first graders in fall and winter.