The Early Reading Skill Malayalam (ERS-M) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing reading acquisition and for diagnosing reading difficulties in children learning the Malayalam orthography. The ERS-M has the potential to serve as a measure of sequential acquisition of the continuum of Malayalam reading skills in children of grades I to VIII and help in the identification of deficits in Malayalam speaking children suspected with Learning Disability (LD). The ERS-M consists of 5 sections with Perceptual Discrimination Skills, Syllable- Grapheme Correspondence, Blending, Structural Analysis, and Reading Passage. ERS- M helps in early identification of reading and writing deficits and also provides a reference for planning appropriate management strategies for reading deficits in Malayalam language.