Is Testing for Dyslexia Necessary?

We do assess children to see if our way of correcting dyslexia will suit their learning style, their level of motivation, giftedness – to look at their weaknesses and strengths and especially to confirm to them that there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. Their strengths can be used to correct their challenges and there is no reason to ‘fix’ anything, because there is nothing broken.

Anyway, some people still love to have a professional test done to get their child’s IQ (if that is relevant?) and mainly to compare them to the average child.

That is what an educational psychologist will be able to do (which we are not) – psychometric assessments:

Psychometric assessments, usually educational and cognitive assessments, investigate factors such as your child’s attention, learning style, motivation, focus, impulsivity, social skills etc are observed during the assessment and add a lot of valuable information.

A full Educational Assessment or Psychometric Assessment usually includes:

•  IQ/Cognitive Test (investigating your child’s cognitive potential and strengths and weaknesses). Some examples of the assessment tools used include:
  • Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV)
  • Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-III)
  • Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales (WAIS-III & IV); Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale (SB-IV & V)

•  Achievement Testing (tests of reading, phonological awareness, spelling and arithmetic). Some examples of tests used include:
  • Neale Analysis of Reading Ability
  • WIAT-II
  • South Australian Spelling Test
  • Woodcock Reading Mastery Test
  • Wide Range Achievement test (WRAT3 & 4)

•  Rating Questionnaires and Behaviour rating scales – investigating issues such as concentration and inattention (ADD/ADHD); motor hyperactivity/impulsiveness; reading problems; cognitive deficits/linguistic comprehension, behaviour, anxiety, social skills, linguistic comprehension; and social skills and competence.

• Interveiw with parent(s) / caregivers (discussing your child’s and family’s background and history, previous assessments, etc)