The assessment

 

Many parents and teachers contact me for an assessment having wondered for some time if the difficulties they are seeing in a child's learning are due to dyslexia.  An assessment will provide a profile of the learner's strengths and difficulties and recommendations are provided to support future development.

 

A schools age full diagnostic assessment takes approximately 2 - 2.5 hours for primary aged children, and 2.5 -3 hours at Secondary age.  Post-16 assessments take 3 - 3.5 hours.  If there are concerns about mathematics these can be discussed to establish whether a "light touch" is needed to investigate further, or whether more in-depth assessment is required.  Depending on concerns, assessment for both dyslexia and dyscalculia can be required and this is paced over two sessions.

 

Before assessment I will send you a questionnaire and will provide one for the school to fill in, where possible.  These will need to be returned in good time before assessment.  It's important to ensure that vision has been checked, with an update on vision testing if this is due.  You will be issued with a "visual difficulties" questionnaire to ensure that any further investigation of possible visual difficulties is carried out.

 

The assessment includes tests of reading accuracy and comprehension, spelling, writing, phonological skills, speed of processing information, memory skills, verbal and non-verbal underlying ability and, where indicated, mathematical skills. 

 

Following assessment, there will be some verbal feedback of initial findings and a full written report will follow about two weeks later  (subject to cleared payment).

 

Occasionally  the assessment profile can be unclear and there may not be sufficient information to make an identification of a specific learning difficulty.  In this case, a full report is still supplied and recommendations will be made to support identified areas of difficulty.

 

Access arrangements

You do not need a full diagnostic assessment for access arrangements and if concerns are mainly about these you should contact the school’s senco. 

 

When the learner is in Y9, or above, liaison with school will be necessary prior to assessment should any of the scores information be helpful in feeding in to formal access arrangements paperwork.  This is dependent on the learner having a “normal way of working” and tutors making adjustments to support needs in their teaching and learning strategies.  Schools are not always able to provide this information, or have their own processes, in which case the report will form part of the “history of need” - a helpful piece of evidence for access arrangements purposes.  It is less complicated than it reads and I’m happy to discuss further!

 

Post-16 assessments follow the same pattern, with a range of evidence gathered before the assessment takes place. 

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Please contact me for discussion of your requirements and information about fees.