FINDING A TEST

There are two types of tests for dyslexia: screening tests and assessments by a psychologist.

Screening tests
These tests are designed to be used on very large numbers of children, to narrow down the group of children who might need a more thorough test for possible dyslexia. They are not tests for dyslexia, but are designed to help teachers focus on children who might be dyslexic.

Screening by questions
One well-researched list of questions for parents is reproduced below (From Direct Learning).

If you answer 'Yes' to four or more of these questions, then the child or teenager may be dyslexic, and we recommend that he or she has a full individual assessment:

Children selected by this method could be having problems with their learning for any number of reasons - emotional problems, confusion caused by a change of school, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), delayed learning, autism, dyspraxia, and possible dyslexia. Screening tests like these cannot be seen as valid tests for dyslexia, but they are very helpful in indicating the need for a further assessment.

Screening Tests Using Computer Games
Computer games such as Lucid and Smart Cat are attractive to children. The short games which children play (on their own) on a computer allow their abilities to be measured, especially in the areas in which dyslexic children struggle. These include short-term memory, reading, spelling, sequencing, and non-verbal memory.

Computer games like these are convenient for giving tests to a lot of children - perhaps a whole class - but should be seen not as providing an assessment of dyslexia, but as identifying children who may need a further assessment by a psychologist.

Comprehensive testing by a psychologist
Psychologists operate either through schools or privately.

A pupil may be seen by a psychologist in school if the principal/headteacher recommends it and the parent/s agree. The psychologist has to be paid by the school authority, and there are constrains on the amount of money that is available for psychological testing.

Assessment by the school psychologist seems to be the method that works for the majority of children in some countries, though we do hear of a lot of parents who are dissatisfied with the process. More than one parent has reported that their school denied that dyslexia existed!

Some parents seek a private assessment by a psychologist. Although expensive, this is more straightforward. It is quite common to pay around a thousand dollars (over six hundred pounds) for a private assessment, but the costs seem to vary from one country to another. The assessment takes a few hours, and a detailed report will analyze the child's strengths and weaknesses, which can assist in defining a child's IEP. Although assessments are thorough, few psychologists provide detailed recommendations for improving the child's learning skills. This is the responsibility of the Resource Specialist teacher.

Whatever method your school decides upon for a child, all the recent research indicates that the younger your child is tested the better: the sooner the diagnosis of dyslexia is made, the sooner the child starts to develop the appropriate learning strategies and raise their level of achievement in school.

Juliet Freud
June 2009

FURTHER REFERENCES

• Alternative Assessment Methods - Karen Fehring describes a range of alterantive testing methods for dyslexic children and teenagers.

• Reading Proficiency Tests in English (RPTE) - Information on the Reading Proficiency Tests in English (RPTE) from the Texas Education Agency.

• Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) - comprehensive listing of educational assessment tools.

• The Discrepancy in Discrepancies! - article by Kathleen Ross-Kidder about the difficulties involved in using a discrepancy between a child's ability and their actual achievement in order to assess a learning difficulty (LD).

• US Dept of Education's Online Application for Federal Student Aid