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.

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Before:  We exchange information, often starting with a chat on the phone.  Background forms are shared with the family and information is gathered from the school.

If necessary, vision tests are updated and, occasionally, hearing checks.

Full payment is due a week prior to the assessment if independently booked.

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The assessment session:

 

A schools age full diagnostic assessment for dyslexia takes approximately 2 - 2.5 hours for primary aged children, and 2.5 -3 hours at Secondary age.  Post-16 dyslexia 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 for mathematical difficulties (additional time/ fees may apply depending on the assessment commissioned).  

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The session is relaxed but purposeful, with breaks taken.  It includes exploration of aspects of ability,  literacy skills, underlying processing and memory skills and, where indicated, mathematical skills.  ​

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Afterwards:

 

Following assessment, there will be some verbal or emailed 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 usually 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.