DYSLEXIA TESTING ACROSS 
        3 SYDNEY LOCATIONS:

    
      Click to view and contact>




  SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS  
   AND CONCERNS. WE CAN  
  EMAIL OR CALL YOU BACK:

  Your Name
 
  Your Email
 
  Contact Number (best time to call)
 
  Your Message
 
    

















 

Dyslexia Testing - How is Dyslexia Diagnosed?

Dyslexia is a complex disorder and testing requires a detailed approach. A thorough assessment of Dyslexia involves:

1. Evaluation of the child's developmental history and background.
2. Detailed evaluation of reading skills.
3. Assessment of current intellectual level.
4. In most cases it is also useful to evaluate the child's cognitive processes associated with Dyslexia.
5. To screen out the possible presence of a sensory deficit, it is necessary to evaluate the child's visual abilities.

Below you will find more information on the reading and cognitive components of Dyslexia testing. We encourage you to read the information below as it will most likely relate to the problems your child is experiencing.

1. Dyslexia Diagnosis - Reading Skills

Reading tests are designed to evaluate the different building blocks of reading and problems associated with both oral and silent reading. The components evaluated in a Dyslexia assessment are listed below: 

  • Word Reading - This is a test of recognition and understanding of sight words from a list, comprised for a child's age and developmental level.

  • Phonetic Decoding and Orthographic Naming - This is essentially a test of knowledge and recognition of the sounds and symbols used in language production .

  • Conventions and Comprehension - This refers to evaluating knowledge of print conventions and constructing meaning from written text. It is important to test reading within a broad context and without the context. Good readers become fast and accurate at recognising words both without context and within the context of written text. Children with Dyslexia often remain dependent on context. However, the use of context to identify unfamiliar words is a labour intensive effort due to deficits in either phonological or orthographic processing. Hence both oral and silent reading become very slow.

 

  2. Dyslexia Diagnosis - Intellectual Ability (IQ)

   Although Dyslexia and intellectual ability are unrelated, it is important to determine a child's current level of intellectual
   capacity. A child's intellectual ability is a good predictor of his/her reading ability and therefore could shed light on what
   are realistic expectations. The two robust areas of intellectual abilities are explained below: 

  • Verbal Ability (Verbal IQ) - Measures verbal knowledge and verbal concept formation. It is often also referred to as "crystallised intelligence", since it is influenced by learnt information and accumulated knowledge.

  • Nonverbal Ability (Nonverbal IQ)  - Measures nonverbal concept formation and problem solving ability associated with visual information. It is also often referred to as "fluid intelligence", since it is related to working out solutions to problems and seeing pattern in visually presented information.

 

  3. Dyslexia Diagnosis - Cognitive Processes Involved in Reading

   There are numerous cognitive processes involved in learning, but reading predominantly relies on Successive 
   Processing, Simultaneous (parallel) Processing and Attention:
    

  • Successive Processing - The most important cognitive component of reading is successive processing ability. It involves working with things in a specific serial order. Successive processing involves remembering information in order as well as the formation of sounds and movements in order. For this reason, successive processing is highly involved with blending of sounds to form words as well as the syntax of language. Poor successive processing is associated with reading difficulties and therefore closely related to Dyslexia.

  • Simultaneous Processing -  lt involves integrating separate stimuli into a single whole or group. Usually simultaneous processing is associated with tasks that involve spatial skills, such as seeing a group of letters as a word, words as a whole, a sentence as part of a paragraph, and reading comprehension.

  • Attention - It is a cognitive process by which children selectively attend to a particular stimulus and inhibit attending to competing stimuli. For example, when a child suffers from reading difficulties, but he/she can pay adequate attention to a task, it is likely that he/she will self-correct. Children with lower attentional functioning and reading difficulties will fail to self-correct.

                                                          


                        IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS YOUR CONCERNS, CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION:

                                                                                (02) 8068 8661 

                                                                         OR CONTACT US ONLINE HERE    

                                                                     
                                                         An APS certified practice, call with confidence.