Diagnosing dyslexia
In the last post, we touched on the signs and symptoms of dyslexia, and we highlighted the benefit of noticing them early. The earlier you notice that your child is struggling, the less of a knock-on effect it will have on their learning.
If you are just starting to notice those symptoms in yourself or your child at an older age, don’t panic. The tests are very similar for children and adults, and there is support available for dyslexics of all ages.
Despite being a neurological condition, no single brain scan can detect dyslexia. Instead, tests are conducted by a psychologist. As dyslexia refers to a variety of literary difficulties, a range (‘battery’) of tests are conducted to diagnose it.
The variety of tests is extensive, but a small selection will be conducted on an individual. So, here are some of the most common.
Dyslexia Pre-assessment
The Australian Dyslexia Association (ADA) recommends conducting a pre-assessment to determine whether a child or adult should be tested thoroughly. They offer this service to prevent over-testing, which would be unbeneficial and potentially stressful.
The ADA pre-assessment is conducted over email, to ensure minimal distress. This saves unnecessary meetings for applicants and frees up the time of psychologists who analyse the results. The tests vary between age groups and are suited to adults as well as children of all ages.
As well as assessing the need for full dyslexia testing, the ADA pre-assessment will include a medical assessment to rule out sight or hearing problems. Some children struggle at school because of difficulty hearing or seeing the tasks, rather than any neurological difficulties.
Before dyslexia is assesed by a psychologist, a pre-assessment is conducted. This rules out sensory issues and broadly identifies whether dyslexia is likely.
Dyslexia Assessment
Anyone that progresses from pre-assessment will be referred for a dyslexia screening test. The battery of tests will vary depending on the psychologist and the patient, as there are multiple tests even for individual symptoms of dyslexia. Some common ones are:
Phonological Awareness: Phonological awareness is the ability to break words down into individual sounds, and it is one of the most common struggles that people with dyslexia have with reading. Tests for phonological awareness involve identifying words from sounds, splitting words into sounds and matching words with others in their sound groups.
Rapid Automatic Naming: We touched on Rapid Naming when we introduced dyslexia and, simply put, it is the fast retrieval of information from our brains. When we see numbers, letters and familiar words, we know them from memory – almost like the opposite of decoding. To diagnose a rapid naming delay, psychologists will ask children to name things from a list – such as short words, numbers, objects and colours.
Decoding Ability: Decoding is identifying words from their sounds. Decoding tests involve reading nonsense words aloud from a list containing real and nonsense words. By sounding out nonsense words, children are being tested on their decoding skills alone, rather than a combination of memory (rapid naming) and decoding skills.
Reading Comprehension: Reading large scripts aloud and understanding what you have just said is a significant literary milestone. Psychologists use reading comprehension tests to identify when children are reading fluently by asking them questions about passages they have just read. Similar tests also include reading silently and listening comprehension.
Dyslexia is assesed with a variety of tests including phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming, decoding and reading comprehension.
Diagnosing dyslexia
Dyslexia is complex to diagnose, but the various tests used to do so are very established. Pre assessments are highly recommended to avoid unnecessary time and costs wasted on an easily determined negative result.
Dyslexia testing is non-invasive and ranges from reading and writing to neurological processing. They are always conducted and analysed by trained psychologists, who can then advise individuals, parents and schools on the best support according to the results.
It is important to rule out sensory issues from the start – such as poor eyesight inhibiting reading, rather than processing deficits. These can be included in a pre-assessment to save time and effort.
If you are worried about your own or your child’s literacy and suspect it could be dyslexia, reach out to your GP who can advise your next steps.
Felicity Thompson
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