I’m a dyslexia assessor AMA

[Yawnyyawny]

Maybe interesting, maybe not. Often people have ‘ooh my child does this, could it be dyslexia’ type questions…if so, ask away!

@Autumcolors I am already a teacher and did a level 7 course with Dyslexia Action. I had to do the teaching modules first and then the assessing ones. It was quite intense and quite expensive but worth it. The set-up costs a lot as the assessments to buy are up to £1000 each and no one assessment can do the full job!

We're fairly sure 7yo DD has dyslexia. School very good and supporting with Nessy and reading fluency support.

Do you think there's any benefit with early assessment. School say it will make no difference to their support as they're doing lots for her and have plans for further support as she gets older (e.g. laptop and software to help).

We thought we'd get her officially diagnosed for secondary school.

@NerdyBird Definitely worth a visual stress test with an optometrist. I think some areas provide these on NHS but other places you’d have to go private. Most assessors would recommend you do that before having a dyslexia assessment.

@MotherOfCatBoy I haven’t used Toe by toe. I believe it’s pretty old. Basically they need phonics, phonics and more phonics along with some work on morphology. Teaching them how words work with suffixes, prefixes etc and where words come from can be really helpful too. Morph mastery is good - quite complex to get your head around but works well.

@SpinningTops Sounds like school are supporting her well. You’re more likely to get a firm diagnosis closer to secondary school age, I’d say you’re wise to wait.

So is memory linked as well? I was diagnosed young now 44 lol I often worry something else was missed back in the day. I’m sure I have adhd after my eldest was told she likely had it after we realised girls present differently to boys. But my memory is shot. I wish I could say it’s brain fog or whatever but it’s been terrible forever!

Hi, my daughter is 7 and will be doing the dyslexic assessment soon, what does it entail? We haven't said anything to her about it for now.
She's very good at maths and reading, does well in her weekly spelling test but when it comes to written work she makes quite a lot of spelling mistakes, words she'd have gotten right in one of her spelling tests at some point. Her y2 teacher was the one who suggested it might be mild dyslexia, she spent extra time with her regularly to try and help but the same mistakes kept happening.
Does that sound like it could be dyslexia? She spent a lot of time putting 9 instead of P sacs mixing up b and d but seems fine with that now.

What % of your clients receive a diagnosis o f dyslexia?

Thanks. She can organise herself but won't a lot of the time! Working memory I'm not sure, she has a good memory in general but does sometimes not remember things and may not always fully follow instructions (possibly because she doesn't want to!).
She's quite good at maths but can do things like swapping round numbers e.g put 23 instead of 32. No problems with days of the week etc.
She has struggled with some rhyming words, I think she didn't always get nursery rhymes right when younger.

She's got an eye test coming up so I will ask them about visual stress testing.
Thanks!

@Meadowgrasses most do to be honest as I do quite a thorough background interview and don’t recommend going ahead with an assessment if I don’t feel there are grounds for one.

My son is 5 and I wonder if he may have dyslexia or maybe he’s just immature and catching up with his peers. He does have a speech delay - specifically receptive language delay. He has really poor grammar (spoken) e.g. he /she incorrectly, hairses instead of hairs etc. he has really struggled with phonic although he is making progress since entering year one. Eg for cvc words he will often correctly use phonics to sound out but blends the wrong - in particular missing out the first sound eg h-o-t —> ‘ot’.

when I look at the British dyslexic website for early years he seems to tick a lot of the areas for early years indicators eg understanding nursery rhymes, rhyming, remembering teachers and friends names (he has been in the same class for 1.5 years and would struggle to tell me the names of 50% of the children in his class photo etc).

do you think these could be signs of dyslexia or are these more likely as a result of his salt issues?

my daughter (10) was recently screened for dyslexia by the SENCO but it came out inconclusive. She can read very well. Her working memory backwards is good but forwards not so good

the issue is her spelling. She doesn’t spell consistently at all, cannot remember any ‘rules’ and even spells her own name wrong on occasion. Her handwriting is bad but has improved a bit in the last year.

@SpinningTops how good is her reading comprehension? Does she rely on looking back at the text to answer questions? How was she when learning to read? How was she at picking up phonics? Can she manipulate sounds in words easily such as saying “plates” without saying “t” or changing the “i” in “bin” to an “u” to make a new word? She may visualise the words
written down to do those but can she do it by using the sounds? How is her general organisation? How is her memory? Can she remember and repeat back a phone number? Could she listen to a series of say 4 numbers and then tell you them back in reverse order?
Poor writing structure, spelling and punctuation which are surprising when you think of their strong general or verbal ability are indicators.
Do school have any processing speed or working memory tests they could do? They should be thinking about exam access arrangements as anything they want to apply for her GCSEs needs to be her normal
way of working, so if she needs a scribe or a reading pen, those kinds of things should be used by her in class.

@unkownone Yes, defo linked to difficulties in memory. The official definition is problems with working memory, phonological processing and processing speed which have an impact on reading and spelling (or words to that effect)!

I got diagnosed as an adult about 10 years ago and I was told yes for dyslexia and that I have a 'spiky' profile (v high IQ, high visual-spatial intelligence or something similar & very poor working memory and auditory processing). I never struggled with reading or writing as a child, in fact, the opposite was true, I was considered gifted. My mum & brother are more 'traditionally' dyslexic. Does my diagnosis sound right to you? Could it be ADHD instead of dyslexia?

@wineandmaltesershappyme It’s quite a long and arduous assessment which can take 3-4 hours. The assessor should work at your DD’s pace though and should offer lots of breaks. They will test her memory through things like remembering strings of numbers, hearing a string of numbers and then repeating them in reverse order, that kind of thing. They’ll do her processing speed possibly through getting her to name letters, numbers or pictures as fast as she can. There will be phonological tests, which will start with things like “tell me something which begins with “b” and will get progressively more difficult. There will probably be a phonological memory test where she will be asked to repeat nonsense words which will get longer and longer.
Her language will be tested and so will her logi and puzzling type skills.
The tests should all start easy and get more difficult. They mostly have stopping rules, such as stop after they get 4 in a row incorrect.
They will then test her attainment in single word reading, reading comprehension, reading fluency, spelling and writing.
She needs to be prepared for a long do. Most of my young clients quite enjoy it though, I always have plenty of chocolate biscuits for face to face assessments and try to make online assessments as painless as possible.

My DS has an assessment and has a slow processing speed and is apparently quite badly dyslexic. He has one hour of one to one support a week. He is 10. His reading is getting better although he just has to guess at words he hasn't learnt. He is really bright but his writing is not really legible. It's neat but his spelling makes it tricky to decipher what he is saying. Is there any technology he could use or other methods to make it easier for him? He also writes numbers backwards. His maths is good but translation is a problem. I am worried about secondary school and how he will cope.

I don’t understand how on the one hand you say it’s not a visual problem, but then say that glasses and overlays may help?

How is slow processing a cause of dyslexia when many dyslexics are extremely intelligent and have no difficulties processing complicated maths concepts, for example.

I just find myself more and more confused about dyslexia the more I read.

My dd9 struggled learning to read. She says the words move as she changes lines causing her to lose her place. She is terrible at spelling.
Reading from a yellow page or with a yellow overlay really helps.

However school have assessed her )using LASS?) and found no obvious evidence of dyslexia I'm not convinced and not sure what I should do next?

Any advice?

Thank you for doing this!

How common are speech difficulties and Dyslexia? My 8 year old has been under SLT on and off since he was 3. He has a lot of trouble distinguishing between different sounds (though hearing tests come back showing no problem), his speech used to be extremely unclear because to him (for example) a "st" and a "d" sounded the same (along with many other sound combos). So we had to work on that before he could even start learning to speak clearly (and he still doesn't sound very clear). Unsurprisingly he couldn't get on with phonics at all, and right now he's around 2 years behind with reading and struggles to spell more than the most basic words. He is great at practical things and working at the expected level with maths, so it seems to be a difficulty around words in particular. School have referred him for a Dyslexia assessment at my request but said the assessor may not want to do it because they'll just say it's due to his speech difficulties. But I think they could be linked?

If it's relevant, he's also waiting for a neurodiversity assessment. We have ASD, Dyslexia and dyspraxia in the family.

DS13 is dyslexic, dyspraxic (diagnosed) and likely dyscalculic (just screened). He reads like a demon, comprehension skills are great but his processing speeds and working memory are awful, particularly in maths.

We're chasing exam access arrangements for GCSE at the moment. They've assessed his reading age (18+) and writing speeds (average) so he doesn't currently qualify for anything other than normal ways of working (small room etc).

But there must be access arrangement tests for processing surely? Do you know what they are and what I should be asking for?

Thank you!

@Yawnyyawny

Have you heard of Visual Stress (Meares Irlen Syndrome)?

Hi

Have you heard of Visual Stress? This is a seperate condition from Dyslexia but can co exist alongside Dyslexia. Please read some info at www.wingateopticians.co.uk and also at www.ceriumvisualtechnologies.com

I suspect my 9 year old daughter is dyslexic and possibly has ADHD. The school are aware and are working with her but cannot give a conclusive answer as to whether she has dyslexia or not, just that she has a high score on tests indicating she does. I worry as she is nearing high school age and cannot read or write at a high level and I don't know how to take this further. I feel like I have the same conversation with the school as they see a very different child to what I do. (Masking?!) is a private assessment worth is (the school suggests it is not) will it get her extra help in high school having an official diagnosis?

Hi

Please consider Visual Stress (Meares Irlen Syndrome) as a possibility. Symptoms include words moving on the page, words or letters blurring, patches of colour on the page and many other things such as not being able to remember what they have just read...
Many children that have been tested for Dyslexia turn out to be suffering from Visual Stress which is treated using coloured glasses. If a child finds benefit from coloured overlays it is quite likely they are suffering from Visual Stress and a Colorimetry Assessment can find the exact colour needed for them and can be made into glasses to be used for reading, writing, whiteboards, computers etc .... wherever they need it.
Visual Stress is an adverse reaction (caused by an over stimulated visual cortex) to black and white patterns, which is essentially what any page in a book is.... black lines on a white background.

I hope this information is useful 😀