Assessment for Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?

Believe it or not, the term dyslexia has been in use for almost 150 years and over time our understanding of its causes and manifestation has deepened enormously. Whilst definitions of dyslexia still vary a little across the globe, it is widely accepted that dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which impacts upon the abilities required to learn to read and spell. In early 2025, after a huge amount of discussion and hours of refinement as part of the Delphi Study, a new definition of dyslexia was published:

Dyslexia is primarily a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling.

In dyslexia, some or all aspects of literacy attainment are weak in relation to age, standard teaching and instruction, and level of other attainments.

Across languages and age groups, difficulties in reading and spelling fluency are a key marker of dyslexia.

The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences.

Dyslexic difficulties exist on a continuum and can be experienced to various degrees of severity.

Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such as mathematics, reading comprehension or learning another language.

This definition has been approved by the SpLD Standards Committee (SASC) and adopted by professional bodies in the UK, such as the British Dyslexia Association and PATOSS.

Assessment for Dyslexia

As a parent/carer with concerns about their child’s progress in school, in particular perhaps their ongoing struggles to read and write, whilst you may want to commission a comprehensive dyslexia assessment immediately, it is always advisable in the first instance to contact your child’s school and speak to the class teacher and/or Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). It is, of course, their duty to identify children in their setting who have additional learning needs and to put appropriate intervention and support into place for them.

However, if you have done so, or if you would like to discuss your concerns, the next step would be to contact me so I can call you back for an informal conversation.

Please note that as I have spent more than two decades working in and supporting school setting s across all phases, I specialise in assessing for dyslexia in school-aged children (from 8 years) and young people; I do not identify dyslexia in adults.

To help with your decision-making and investigation into the process of dyslexia assessment, please take a moment to watch the video ‘Why assess?’ or to hear about personal experiences of how assessment has helped individuals with dyslexia understand their learning profile watch ‘How does it feel to be dyslexic?’

Initial screening assessments

For some parents/carers, an initial assessment of their child’s literacy skills might be a first choice, particularly if they are younger. A screening assessment – whilst not diagnostic, and therefore does not result in the identification of dyslexia – can provide useful information about their current reading, spelling and writing skills, and can also begin to unpick their ability to work with sound-based information (phonological awareness). It may also help a family to decide whether or not to pursue a full dyslexia assessment; a screening assessment can be ‘topped up’ to comprehensive diagnostic assessment.

Comprehensive dyslexia assessments

In order to ascertain whether dyslexia is the right description of your child’s learning profile, a formal assessment of their abilities and skills needs to be undertaken, as well as the collation of background information, developmental history and details of their educational experiences. Whilst the latter is done through questionnaire completion by the parents/carers, the assessment would ordinarily take place at my home address in Bromsgrove. (Assessment in your home may be possible, but this may incur an additional charge: to be agreed prior to the assessment itself.) Furthermore, your child will have the chance to offer their own views and thoughts during the 1:1 session.

The assessment itself involves the administration of tests which assess a range of abilities and skills, including, for example, verbal and non-verbal reasoning, working memory, phonological abilities, processing speed, as well as reading, spelling and writing. The assessment will be conducted in accordance with SASC guidelines and the report which is produced as a result will adhere to their formatting requirements too.

The final report details and explains test scores from the assessment session and draws together the information provided through the questionnaires and the conversation with the child. Recommendations for support are also provided for both the child’s school and home. Should dyslexia be confirmed and a diagnosis made, this will be clearly stated. On occasion, there may also be the need to advise an onward referral to another professional e.g. occupational therapist, speech and language therapist.

As I have a current Assessment Practicing Certificate (APC) in addition to Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia Association (AMBDA) and use the SASC guidance when assessing and reporting, should your child receive a diagnosis of dyslexia and subsequently go to university, their diagnostic report can be used as evidence for Disabled Students Allowance. Please be aware that dyslexia assessment reports written by assessors who do not have an APC or follow SASC guidelines are not accepted for this purpose.