Dyslexia Assessment

What is a Dyslexia Assessment

A Dyslexia assessment is a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s reading, writing, and spelling abilities. Since there is no single test to diagnose Dyslexia, psychologists use a combination of interviews, questionnaires, and cognitive (IQ) and academic assessments to understand your child’s overall learning abilities and investigate the potential causes of reading difficulties. 

When is a Dyslexia Assessment Recommended for a Child? 

Your child’s teacher or allied health professional may recommend a Dyslexia assessment if your child has persistent difficulties with reading and spelling despite regular instruction and practice. Some key indicators that may lead to a Dyslexia assessment referral include: 

• Poor fluency when reading aloud 
• Mixing up letters and sounds 
• Family history of Dyslexia or learning difficulties 

It is important to note that your child must have completed formal reading instruction, through classroom teaching or private tutoring, before a Dyslexia test can be completed. Limited access to formal education needs to be ruled out for a Dyslexia diagnosis to be made.   

Why Does a Psychologist Diagnose Dyslexia? 

Psychologists are professionals who study the brain including how we think, feel, behave and learn. They play a key role in diagnosing conditions affecting mental health, cognitive development and learning processes.   

Dyslexia is a learning disorder caused by differences in brain development that affect language processing. Because Dyslexia involves complex cognitive and neurodevelopmental factors, psychologists are best equipped to diagnose it. Psychologists can administer a range of standardised tests to identify Dyslexia and rule out other potential causes of reading difficulties such as attention, language comprehension or anxiety. 

Benefits of a Dyslexia Assessment 

Although a formal assessment is not required to access support with reading, there are many practical benefits to completing a Dyslexia assessment:  

• Gaining a better understanding of the cause of your child’s reading difficulties, along with evidence-based methods to address them
• Developing an individualised learning plan to support your child’s reading progress 
• Identifying classroom accommodations, such as providing verbal or visual instructions, offering alternative learning formats (e.g., video or audio), and using assistive technologies like text-to-speech and reading pens 
• Accessing special provisions in assessment tasks such as using a reader or scribe  

Understanding Dyslexia Assessment Results 

Following a Dyslexia assessment, the psychologist provides a comprehensive report that outlines your child’s performance in each test, their areas of strength and development and tailored recommendations to best support your child’s specific needs. Families are given the opportunity to schedule a phone consultation to discuss the results and next steps with the psychologist.   

The report will include results from both the cognitive and academic assessments. The cognitive assessment provides an IQ composite score range, which reflects your child’s overall intellectual ability. An IQ score range of 90-109 is considered average. You will also receive a description of their performance in each subtest, which can help you understand areas of strength and difficulty. Children with learning difficulties may perform well in some cognitive domains and have difficulties in others.  

From the academic assessment, your child will receive a composite score range for their overall performance in oral language, reading, mathematics and writing. A composite score range of 90-109 is considered average. You will also receive a written description of how they performed in each subtest to better understand their academic strengths and areas of improvement. Typically, a child with Dyslexia might demonstrate lower performance in the word reading, pseudoword decoding, oral reading fluency and spelling tests. 

The assessment report may or may not state a diagnosis alongside the assessment findings. Dyslexia is a subset of specific learning disorder with specific criteria for diagnosis. If a learning disorder diagnosis is made, the report may include any one of the following, depending on your child’s profile:   

• Specific Learning Disorder – Impairment in Reading: your child’s learning difficulties are primarily in reading and is the umbrella term to Dyslexia   
• Specific Learning Disorder – Impairment in Mathematics: your child’s learning difficulties are primarily in mathematics including problem-solving, fluency and numerical operations  
• Specific Learning Disorder – Impairment in Written Expression: your child’s learning difficulties are primarily in written expression including sentence composition, essay composition and spelling  
• Specific Learning Disorder (Dyslexia): your child’s difficulties are primarily in word reading accuracy, oral reading fluency and spelling, and meet the criteria of the Dyslexia subset of Specific Learning Disorder. 

Assessment Tools Used by Learning Links 

At Learning Links, we use a variety of tools to assess whether a child may have Dyslexia. Some of the most common tools used in a Dyslexia assessment include: 

• Wechsler Cognitive Assessment Tools (WPPSI-IV, WISC-V, and WAIS-IV) – These are standardised tools used to evaluate children’s cognitive abilities across five key domains. 
• Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-III) – This standardised assessment measures the child’s performance in academic areas such as reading, writing, oral language, and mathematics. 

Take the Next Step: Book a Dyslexia Assessment Today 

If your child is struggling with reading and you suspect Dyslexia might be the cause, a comprehensive assessment can offer the clarity you need to support your child. Contact us today to schedule a Dyslexia assessment and take the first step toward helping your child overcome reading challenges.