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!

@Yawnyyawny thank you for responding. I appreciate you taking the time to do this.

Thank you for the answer and for offering your time :)

Thank you very much for your answer. Yes, he struggles with organisation, he's messy, I don't think I would even ask him to pass on a message as I've no faith he's remember it! He never remembers to hand his homework in. I'd put this sort of thing down to potential ADHD but actually reading your thread here has made me wonder if some of the ADHD like things might actually be Dyslexia things. Though he is also very demand avoidant which I don't think is a Dyslexia thing?

Interestingly his teacher said to me recently that she'd never met a child who hated writing as much as he does who wasn't dyslexic, dyspraxic or both.

It is really worrying that he is 8 and can barely write at all. Especially when seeing the example on here of a 7 year old that someone was worried about - that was on a whole different (much higher) scale of skill to his! He can still barely write at all. In your experience can kids like that turn it around? I suppose I worry he'll barely be literate as an adult.

That's fascinating! I had begun to wonder if something else was going on with him. He does his homework under duress and to the minimum extent possible. What led to you seek an ADHD assessment for your DD - and do you think I should pursue one for my DS on top of the dyslexia diagnosis?

Thank you for your reply. He could definitely read a list of numbers quickly and could read a list of letters quickly but may well get b and d mixed up if they were lower case and just letters out of context. In terms of memory in general, he can remember information and experiences that interest him incredibly well. He'll often come out with facts that he has heard somewhere ages ago and if we doubt him and google it he has almost always remembered correctly. His sense of direction is incredible. However, he is generally very disorganised. If I don't remind him he will forget to take things he needs for school, he frequently forgets to bring home items that he takes with him to school/activities etc. He never seems to know where he has put his belongings at home. If he is asked to do a short list of simple tasks he will invariably forget some of them. Getting ready for school (or to go anywhere) takes ages as each task (getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing hair, brushing teeth, putting a coat on etc) takes him a long time and he needs to be reminded to keep on-task. He is getting better at all of this as he gets older and we have learned to put things in place to help him (eg a written list of tasks, specific places that important belongings are put every time) but he is still much slower at doing things and remembering things independently than his siblings were at a much younger age.

@Yawnyyawny That's brilliant, thank you! I knew he needed the two cognitive scores below 84 but the full JCQ guidance doesn't actually list the bank of tests that you can use to assess for the processing criteria anywhere, so that list is super helpful to know what I'm chasing with school. I know he had some of those tests done as part of his wider dyslexia assessment and a CAMHS review, and the scores were well below 84, so hopefully when school's assessor does them he should qualify. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!

My son is nearly 8, his early reading was so slow we were convinced he was dyslexic (family history too) we put in a lot of work including toe by toe and his reading is pretty good (his existing teacher can't believe we were ever concerned)

His screener said "some signs of dyslexia" and his spelling is still really bad

Does this sound like a late bloomer or could problems re-emerge later? Interesting school think he might be autistic

@Yawnyyawny I'm back with another one. DS11 learned to read with no issues, spells fantastically well, but has increasingly big problems with comprehension (his current yr 6 teacher thinks he's lazy and just can't be bothered). He has never got any pleasure from reading (unlike his dyslexic brother who devours books), though it seems technically he can read fine.

He told me this weekend that he hates reading because the words move around on the page and that he knows what order the letters are meant to be in but they never stay that way. This is a) news to me and b) rings alarm bells for dyslexia, doesn't it? My mind is boggling slightly that he could have got this far without someone picking it up (us included!)?! But he's always met expectations up until now and didn't display the same processing issues as his dyslexic brother. I think we should probably get him assessed?!

@ThinkingAgainAndAgain sorry for the delay in replying, I wasn’t expecting so many questions! It’s really quite difficult to diagnose very young children and that’s why a lot of assessors prefer to wait until they’re a bit older. I usually offer a screening assessment for little ones where I use the same tests but if it’s not giving a clear picture I’ll just write a short overview of strengths and difficulties and recommendations rather than the full report.
Poor spelling is often the giveaway with older ones and it’s entirely possible that your DS has developed strategies over the years to enable him to do really well academically.
Does he have any difficulties with instructions or memory? Organisation difficulties? Poor sense of direction?

@turkeyboots hi, they say one in ten people are dyslexic which is a pretty high number really. In the schools I’ve come across, very few children have diagnoses, certainly not three in each class.
I do a pretty thorough background check and don’t advise people to go ahead with an assessment if I don’t think they tick any boxes which suggest dyslexia.
So I do diagnose a high proportion of those I assess. I don’t like to waste people’s money and there is plenty of work not to have to.

@anythinginapinch I count it as a Specific learning difficulty with the emphasis on specific. I think “learning difficulty” sounds gives the impression that ability is low. A lot of dyslexic people are extremely intelligent but have a specific difficulty with their memory/processing/phonological awareness which means that their reading or writing ability don’t reflect their potential. Does that make sense?

I think the word “difficulty” has to be in there as it does cause difficulty. There are strategies etc which help but basically reading/writing/spelling are made difficult by the cognitive weaknesses.

@muchalover hi, yes there is definitely a family link with dyslexia and SASC guidelines state that dyslexia reports should include family history. There are also links with dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD and autism.

@Luckydog7 hi, it’s hard to say really.
If you have difficulties with working memory, phonological awareness and processing speed (or at least two out of those three) which are not allowing you to meet your potential (judging by your non-verbal ability), in reading/writing/spelling, that would be dyslexia.
Does that help?

No worries, and thank you for the reply.

Yes, he has poor executive function. He has diagnosed ASD and dyspraxia. He works hard to organise himself (he rarely forgets to take anything into school, for example) but his room is very messy and he doesn’t organise his papers, books, textbooks etc well. He also needs a lot of reassurance. I don’t know how much of this is related to the dyspraxia and ASD, rather than undiagnosed dyslexia though. His spelling is very poor indeed.

@Yawnyyawny - my 21 year old (at uni) has just been diagnosed through an educational assessment. Something I never expected tbh - high achieving, early reader, but has concentration and processing difficulties. Is it fairly common to go through school ‘normally’ and then get diagnosed at uni?
I am def number dyslexic and I understand things like this can be hereditary.

DH's spelling isn't strong e.g. he asks me how to spell words for a crossword puzzle. Is it too late for him to be assessed?

Why would you turn someone down for assessment?

How can you rule out that they wouldn't have responded to targeted interventions if you only meet them for a one day assessment rather than assessment over time?

Why does the dyslexia industry tell parents that diagnosis is necessary when it shouldn't be used by schools to gate keep support?

What do children who receive a diagnosis 'get' at school that those who haven't paid for an assessment don't get?

Why would DH want to be? Unless he's a mature student?

@Yawnyyawny can I ask about your route into the role, please? I'm secondary English and have been looking at the Level 7 course with DA that you completed. What did it entail? Did you do it alongside FT teaching? Did you have more 'specific' experience than teaching mainstream? Do you just work as a dyslexia tutor and assessor now? Or both roles? I'm also intrigued by the set up costs that you mentioned! Thank you! And happy new year. Apologies for reviving a slightly ood thread!

Just wondering if anyone has a child that was screened for Dyslexia in school? My daughter was screened and came back as a high risk for Dyslexia and a low risk for working memory (not sure what is meant by the working memory part) she was referred by our GP to have an ADHD assessment however it’s taking longer than expected because her school aren’t supporting it. So my question is should the school be putting things in place for her learning now theyre aware she has come back as a high risk for Dyslexia? It seems they are just carrying on as normal with her and I’m worried about her being so far behind her class mates and will continue to fall behind.

Just to add I know it’s a screening and not a formal diagnosis, however she’s almost 9 and still cannot read and write fluently. But often comes home upset that her teacher has called her lazy for not finishing her work 😞

Just wondering if anyone has a child that was screened for Dyslexia in school? My daughter was screened and came back as a high risk for Dyslexia and a low risk for working memory (not sure what is meant by the working memory part) she was referred by our GP to have an ADHD assessment however it’s taking longer than expected because her school aren’t supporting it. So my question is should the school be putting things in place for her learning now theyre aware she has come back as a high risk for Dyslexia? It seems they are just carrying on as normal with her and I’m worried about her being so far behind her class mates and will continue to fall behind.

Just to add I know it’s a screening and not a formal diagnosis, however she’s almost 9 and still cannot read and write fluently. But often comes home upset that her teacher has called her lazy for not finishing her work 😞

Peacemaking.. sorry to rekindle an old thread... I want to read this.

Other than issues with spelling, how else do you see dyslexia present? I'm aware it's classed within the spectrum of neurodivergence and wonder what else this can look and feel like for people? Thank you.

Hi, dyslexia mainly presents as a difficulty with reading fluency and/or spelling. It appear that reading is good, as in the I individual can read and understand, but it may not be automatic, they may be very inaccurate or maybe very slow.
The cause of this is a difficulty with phonological processing which is made up of 3 areas and so a weakness in one or all
of these would be significant…

1. phonological awareness, which is the way they identify and manipulate sounds in words - can they give you a word with a ‘b’ sound in the middle? Can they change the ‘o’ in ‘pot’ to an ‘a’ to make a new word etc.
2. phonological memory, which is how well they can remember and repeat sequences of sound - this is tested by how well they can repeat made-up words which get longer and longer.
3. phonological processing speed, which is how quickly they can retrieve info from long-term memory to name common objects, colours, letters or numbers.

other common difficulties can be weak working memory, slow visual processing speed and weak orthographic skills. Dyslexia can make individuals very disorganised. It commonly goes along with ADHD and also sometimes dyspraxia, dyscalculia or autism. Hope that helps x

I’m so glad this thread was resurrected, I posted at the beginning when DS was 5, he’s now 7 and I’ve been too deep in other diagnoses to think about dyslexia again.

Looking at what you’ve put:
Phonological awareness - he can identify sounds on their own but cannot blend or manipulate them.
Phonological memory - I think he’d really struggle with this test.
Processing speed - if you went through a flick book and asked him to name every item, he’d do it at top speed (this is one of the tests he’s had in speech therapy and he goes too quickly for the therapist to keep up!). But if you asked him “name something square”, “name something you’d find at the beach” he would really struggle. Would that then flag as an issue, or because he can name it from a picture would he pass?

He had an ed psych assessment, they didn’t think dyslexia was likely, but I’m not convinced. He can still barely blend the simplest words, but is learning to sight read and doing well with it. His writing is way behind, because he cannot use phonics to spell. His processing speed was tested as being very slow, so school have put various things in place for that. He very often writes letters and numbers back to front.