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Most people think Dyslexia is reversing letters\u2014reading them out of order.\u00a0 Yes, this does happen, but it\u2019s only one symptom and a symptom that many people with Dyslexia don\u2019t even have.\u00a0 Reading is such a cognitively complex task\u2014just think of all the things that we must do at once and with such ease and speed.\u00a0 We must call out words that we know automatically, we must figure out longer words and use various strategies to decode them (like breaking the word apart sound-by-sound and blending these sounds together or noticing any smaller words inside the word), we must constantly shift between these, and\u2014on top of all this\u2014we must make sense of what we\u2019re reading and consolidate the sentence that we just read with the paragraph or more that we\u2019ve already digested.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot.\u00a0 So, in this complex process, there are many ways that reading development can go wrong, so let me give a few examples.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s one: I just finished Dyslexia testing for an adult who doesn\u2019t reverse letters or word parts at all.\u00a0 His struggle?\u00a0 It takes him so much time and so much energy to retrieve words from memory that reading is painstakingly slow.\u00a0 In many senses, he is gifted and successful, but his reading pace is on par with a fourth grader.\u00a0 Now, can he read complex words and make sense of intensely complicated material?\u00a0 Absolutely, but it just takes so much longer.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another example.\u00a0 I worked with a student whose spelling progressed well through kindergarten and first grade.\u00a0 Spelling beginning sounds, ending sounds, and short vowels\u2014simple words like cat and dog.\u00a0 And spelling and writing can be a good indicator of reading progress.\u00a0 But, her reading lagged behind, and her spelling stalled\u2014not for months, but for years.\u00a0 Long vowels and the many and varied ways to spell long vowels really threw her.\u00a0 Her reading progress stalled, too, she came to avoid reading, and this snowballed.\u00a0 Now, Dyslexia usually rears its head when there is more than one cognitive or thinking weakness.\u00a0 And her biggest weakness was this: making sense of all the ways that you can spell the same sound in English.\u00a0 Just think about a few words from the previous sentence\u2014why isn\u2019t was spelled \u201cwuz,\u201d ways spelled \u201cwaze\u201d or wayz\u201d and sound spelled \u201csownd,\u201d like cow?\u00a0 The truth is, there are countless words in the English language that are spelled irregularly, and this really threw her off and was one of several reasons that reading was so difficult.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what a good dyslexia evaluation does\u2014it doesn\u2019t just detail how a student struggles to read but explains why they are struggling.<\/p>\n
Again, Dyslexia is not just reversing letters.\u00a0 It is a weakness in one or more thinking skills that makes reading really hard.\u00a0 And, as can be seen above, those thinking skills don\u2019t always revolve around reading sounds in the right order.<\/p>\n
In short, trained psychologists diagnose Dyslexia.\u00a0 I say \u201ctrained\u201d because I\u2019ve seen plenty of Dyslexia evaluations that don\u2019t test all the cognitive skills that reading requires, and so it\u2019s missed.\u00a0 That\u2019s like inspecting your car but not checking the tires\u2014seriously.\u00a0 To be fair, Dyslexia testing has progressed markedly over the past fifteen years.\u00a0 In graduate school, I wasn\u2019t even trained on providing a comprehensive Dyslexia evaluation.\u00a0 And this is the reason why about one in four of my evaluations are second or even third opinion evaluations\u2014Dyslexia and other learning disabilities can be missed.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s a fair question\u2014when should you be concerned and what should concern you?\u00a0 For four and five year-olds, markers of reading difficulty are struggling with rhyming words and\/or sorting by beginning sound.\u00a0 Attention struggles can be a marker of reading difficulty, too.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because we know that nearly 50% of students with ADD or ADHD also have a co-existing learning disability (check out the research here<\/a>).\u00a0 For older students, reading below grade level year-after-year despite extra help is also reason to wonder about Dyslexia.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen too many students struggle for years, receive extra help, but never really catch up to their peers.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s not surprising that many have Dyslexia.\u00a0 For teens and adults, more obvious signs could include very poor spelling, very slow and labored reading, and anxiety related to reading.\u00a0 In the end, these signs don\u2019t diagnose, but they can give a clue because, remember, Dyslexia can come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Oftentimes people ask, how young or how old can I test for dyslexia?\u00a0 I\u2019ll start with the easier one: I can test adults of all ages.\u00a0 Within the past year I completed a Dyslexia evaluation for a woman in her 60s.\u00a0 Now, for the harder one: how young can I test for Dyslexia?\u00a0 Let me say this first, it\u2019s important that a student have formal school experience before considering dyslexia.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 We know that high quality instruction can off-set risk factors for Dyslexia.\u00a0 What I mean is this: everyone has a certain risk for developing Dyslexia, ranging from high risk to low.\u00a0 With consistent and high-quality instruction, students who are at-risk for dyslexia may never develop it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the brain is malleable and can compensate for weaknesses in amazing ways.\u00a0 So, I prefer that students be in kindergarten for about six months before completing an evaluation.\u00a0 Still, there are occasions when I will test for dyslexia for an even younger student\u2014like when there is a strong family history of Dyslexia and\/or when preschool has provided developmentally appropriate opportunities to build pre-reading skills.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dyslexia testing has two primary parts: testing cognitive skills and testing academic skills.\u00a0 We all have a decent idea of what reading, writing, and math skills are, but what about cognitive or thinking skills?\u00a0 In total, psychologists agree that there are seven.\u00a0 These range from picking up new vocabulary (some people absorb words like sponges, for others it takes longer) to putting together IKEA furniture (some have a knack for it, but it strikes fear in the hearts of others).\u00a0 So, what does this have to do with Dyslexia?\u00a0 Dyslexia (or any learning disability for that matter) is this: it\u2019s when someone has one or more weak cognitive skills and this explains their struggle in reading, writing, and\/or math.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 So, when I test cognitive skills (some people call them processing skills), I am testing to figure out why a person is struggling to read.\u00a0 Typically, testing lasts between six and eight hours in total, and I break this up into two separate days.\u00a0 This face-to-face testing is important, but it\u2019s not everything.\u00a0 It\u2019s also vital for me to talk with parents, get a history of the child\u2019s schooling, successes, and struggles, and get teacher feedback.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wondering how much Dyslexia testing costs?\u00a0 Check out my fees page<\/a>.\u00a0 Other questions about the evaluation process or ready to schedule an appointment?\u00a0 You can call, email, or fill out a contact form here<\/a>.\u00a0 We have offices in Richmond, Charlottesville, and Harrisonburg.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_image align_tablet=”center” align_phone=”center” align_last_edited=”on|desktop” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”] Dyslexia Testing Richmond, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg What is Dyslexia? Most people think Dyslexia is reversing letters\u2014reading them out of order.\u00a0 Yes, this does happen, but it\u2019s only one symptom and a symptom that many people with Dyslexia don\u2019t even have.\u00a0 Reading is such a cognitively complex task\u2014just think of all the things that we must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this:<\/p> Hi there! I'm a bike messenger by day, aspiring actor by night, and this is my website. I live in Los Angeles, have a great dog named Jack, and I like pi\u00f1a coladas. (And gettin' caught in the rain.)<\/p><\/blockquote> ...or something like this:<\/p> The XYZ Doohickey Company was founded in 1971, and has been providing quality doohickeys to the public ever since. Located in Gotham City, XYZ employs over 2,000 people and does all kinds of awesome things for the Gotham community.<\/p><\/blockquote>Dyslexia testing for adults, teens, and kids<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What does Dyslexia testing include?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Other questions about Dyslexia testing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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