An assessment of literacy and linguistic abilities targets a combination of these abilities by asking the subject to spell projected words. The invention achieves a standardized method of scoring developmental responses and achieves facilitated replication that is applicable to any child's responses. The quantitative scoring system and method have proven to be reliable and replicable. The method includes audibly projecting a word to a student. The word consists os a plurality of phonemes, each phoneme corresponding to a sound and to at least one letter. The student is asked to provide an attempt to spell the word based upon the sounds in the word, the attempt comprising at least one letter. The student attempt is scored, and at least partial credit is given for a student attempt that is incorrect but that includes at least one acceptable letter-phoneme correspondence.