How does a child get tested for dyslexia?

Screenings are used to identify struggling readers and pinpoint who needs reading intervention, or response to intervention (RTI).

According to this Dyslexia Assessment Fact Sheet, “a clinical evaluation is necessary to determine a diagnosis of dyslexia if the student continues to struggle with literacy skills, despite high-quality instruction using an RTI approach. Areas to be assessed, in depth, by a team of individuals include the following: phonological awareness, phonological or language-based memory, rapid automatic naming, receptive vocabulary, phonics skills, decoding/encoding real and pseudo-words, oral reading fluency, and writing at the sentence and paragraph level.”

Assessment is key not only because it helps us pinpoint the need for intervention, but it can show what intervention will be best for a student. Anyone (parent, teacher, therapist) connected to a student who feels the child is not responding as expected to their curriculum and/or academic interventions can ask the school to evaluate them for learning disabilities.

Parents who suspect that their child has dyslexia should ask if the school has access to the reading diagnostic criterion test. A lot of reading tests are just going to say, "The child is two years behind," but parents want one that is going to say, "The child is most behind in phonemic awareness, in blending, or in comprehension," so the school team knows where to target the reading intervention. If parents disagree with the school's assessment, they can ask for an IEE, which should include a Diagnostic Assessment of Reading or a Dibbles. Parents can also ask their pediatrician about getting a medical diagnosis of dyslexia they can bring to the school as evidence of eligibility for an IEP.

Parents may also want to ask for an assistive technology (AT) assessment for reading and writing.

Check out our article Dyslexia 101 for more information about who can diagnose this learning disability and what interventions are recommended.