Testing for dyslexia: where do you go and what does it all mean?
Last year was a rough year in my child’s learning journey. My son was falling behind and struggling to read. I didn’t know how to help him or who to turn to. I felt helpless, and like I wasn’t sure what the next steps should be. He was becoming frustrated with his learning (which is the last thing I wanted!).
He was making gains in reading but they were very slow which made me question if he was dealing with mild dyslexia. I wasn’t sure how to go about seeing if he had a dyslexia diagnosis or where to go to get testing for dyslexia. This was a whole new world for us.
With a little bit more digging and support, I was able to find the right resources. I found a psychologist who was able to do a psychoeducational assessment, which provided an overview of all of my child’s skills and struggles and was able to tell me what sort of learning disability (or learning difference) that he was dealing with.
I found out that we don’t just “test for dyslexia”, we do a more comprehensive assessment that will let us understand my child from a more holistic perspective.
Once I found the right person for testing my child and received the report, the next struggle was figuring out how to read the report! I knew there was good information in there, but I needed to make sense of it. There are SO many terms, statistics, jargon and test names that were included on the neuro-psych report and it felt very overwhelming.
Does this assessment journey sound familiar to any of you?
We want to help our kids, but journeying down this road of learning differences can sometimes feel like we are on a trip without directions or a map. We are here to help.
Let’s try to break down some of the things you might see on a report, and discuss some terms that this report, and others, may contain. Whether you are suspecting dyslexia, ADHD or another learning disability, this will hopefully help you understand the reports better.
The format of the report will likely follow something like this:
Personal Information - This is basic information such as name, birth date, age, grade, school, current date etc.
Reason for Referral - Many reports will have a small paragraph outlining the reason that the child has come for testing (ie. parents have had concerns about reading ability, parents want to gain a clearer understanding of his cognitive abilities, teachers have some concern with attention and focus etc.)
Background Information - This section provides relevant information (and things that you may not have even considered!) about your child’s history. The psychologist, or person who has administered the test, will likely ask about pregnancy, delivery, when they learned to crawl, walk, talk, family health history, etc. It may also detail the child’s experience with school and learning up to this point and may pull in information from any questionnaires that have been answered by teachers or parents to give a greater understanding of the child to date.
Assessment Tools Used - This section normally lists the tests, assessment devices, questionnaires and behaviour assessment tools used to gather data during the testing sessions. Some common tests include the WISC-V, the Connor Rating Scale, Behaviour Assessment System, Woodcock Johnston, Behavioural Assessment Scale (BASC), Bender Visual Test, Beery Visual-Motor Integration and many others (depending on what the tester is focussing on). The most common test here in Ontario is the WISC-V.
Assessment Results - This is where you are most likely to see statistics, percentiles, test names and subtest names. It may talk about information found under categories such as behavioural observations, cognitive functioning, social-emotional functioning, and attention.
Summary - Sometimes this is a great place to start with a report. It provides a more simplistic overview of the findings of the assessment process. It will draw out the points that most need to be addressed.
Recommendations - This section will list specific recommendations for helping your child to succeed. It may include things such as sitting close to the teacher, being provided with technology accommodations, timers, reading strategies, or chunking of tasks.
Resources - Some reports will also list out other resources to check out (websites, books, articles etc) to help you learn more about areas related to your child.
So what about those terms we will see in an assessment. They are usually new to most people!
Let’s break them down together:
General Intelligence: is a measure of different cognitive abilities. This is sometimes also called IQ, or on a popular test such as the WISC-V, this is measured in something called the FSIQ or Full Scale Intelligence Quotient.
Standardized test: A standardized test is a formal measure of achievement. When a test is standardized, that means that it has already been given to a large number of children, to allow comparison of a child’s score to lots of other children who have taken the same test. This will then show what is low-average, average, and high-average scores.
Raw Score: The actual number of answers you got right on a test.
Derived Score: When a score is converted into a more usable form/scale it is called a derived score. This could be things like a standard score or percentile score.
Standard Score: This will allow you to compare one child’s score on a test, to how other students their age performed. For example, you can show how far a score is from the mean. Standard scores will also allow you to compare student’s scores on different types of tests (because they are all standardized).
Standard Score Classifications: A rating system is used to help us make more sense of the scores:
Extremely high: 130+
Very high: 120-129
High Average: 110-119
Average: 90-109
Low Average: 80-89
Very low: 70-79
Extremely low: 69 and below
Percentile Rank: Percentile rank is not the same as a percentage. The percentile rank is comparing how your child did in comparison to other kids, or the percentage of individuals at or below that score (i.e. if they are in the 60th percentile, they performed the same as, or better than 60% of kids their age; similarly if they scored in the 40th percentile, then 60% of the kids of his grade, chosen from the general population, would do better than him on the test). This is a very common way that reports show the child’s score.
Normal Distribution: This is also known as a bell curve, and shows the expected distribution of scores of a test. It shows the mean at the centre high point and asymmetrical distribution of scores on both sides. This helps to understand where your child falls on a test result. On most standardized tests, the mean (at the height of the curve) is set to 100, and the standard deviation is 15 (SD is just a measure of how much variation there is from that mean score).
So on the image below, you can see that the highest number of people would be expected to score in the tall centre part of the curve (the mean score), with numbers of students decreasing as you go to the extreme left or right of the centre (where scores also are either very high or low).
Index Scales: These are scales within the WISC-V (one of the most common tests used) that measure abilities in different cognitive domains. Each index scale score is derived from the subtests within that scale. The five Primary Index Scales are verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed.
Subtests: Within the scales, there are subtests (or activities) that help to come up with a score for the index scales. These will be subtests such as digit span, symbol search, and block design.
Each assessment is going to be laid out a bit differently, depending on where you live, who performed the testing, and what your child’s unique needs are. Educational Assessments can be a huge asset to helping understand your child but remember they are one tool in the toolbox of gaining that comprehensive understanding of your incredibly individual, unique, beautiful kid.
If you are interested in learning more about Dyslexia and/or Testing, here are a few resources:
Check out our previous articles here: Dyslexia Articles
Check out some of our Dyslexia Masterclasses: Dyslexic Motivation and Dyslexia and Mental Health
Check out other articles about testing: Neuropsych Reports and Assessment Lowdown
Check out our masterclass: Making Sense of your report with Dr. Lindsey Dogali. She reviews Executive Functioning Assessment Terms.