How Dyslexia Affects Mental Health

How Dyslexia Affects Mental Health

Blog Article

The Dyslexia Testing Process
Parents are often concerned about their child's reading skills. They seek information and trust experts to tell them what is wrong--and to give them advice about how to fix it.


An effective evaluation identifies and rules out all possible sources of the student's reading difficulties. It also determines whether the student's profile of strengths and weaknesses fits the definition of dyslexia.

History
The term dyslexia has come a long way since it was first used nearly 140 years ago. Researchers have uncovered the backstory of how the condition became recognised as a disorder that requires a professional diagnosis.

Until relatively recently, most government officials had little sympathy for the idea of a specific learning difficulty with reading or spelling. The term was not even included in the 1970s Warnock Report on special educational needs, which itself only referred to the problem as'reading problems'.

Dyslexia is an overlapping set of language-based learning difficulties that affect the ability to decode and spell. The most common difficulty is the inability to automatically distinguish the phonological features (speech sounds) that make up words and that can be separated into syllables and letters. This difficulty is called phonological processing and is the primary cause of dyslexia. Other types of reading difficulty may be present and need to be addressed, but they are not part of dyslexia.

Screening Tests
Before a child or adult can receive dyslexia support they must undergo a full and comprehensive evaluation conducted by a specialist. These evaluations are often covered by insurance and can take up to four hours for children and eight for adults.

The evaluation includes a review of the person’s history including personal, family and academic and medical histories. It also includes a discussion about any previous specific learning difficulties (SpLD) the person may have had.

Screening tests are designed to give an indication of whether a person is likely to have dyslexia. These are used to determine the likelihood that a person will need intervention or support. They do not provide a diagnosis (for which a formal Dyslexia diagnostic assessment is required). Screening tests are easy to administer and low cost and many are available online for adults. They are also accepted as evidence for requesting reasonable adjustments at work. This free dyslexia self test is a 13 question screening tool that can be taken to show to a professional.

Assessment
A comprehensive evaluation for dyslexia or a language-learning disability involves collecting information on the child’s history, including family literacy, developmental and learning histories, and early educational opportunities. A written report should be prepared by a clinician with expertise in assessing specific learning difficulties (SLD) such as a SLD specialist, dyslexia therapist, speech and language pathologist or educational psychologist. This report should describe all the intake information, review of school records and tests administered. The report should include standard scores indicating how the child compares to other learners of his or her age.

The assessment includes a wide range of reading, role of speech therapists in dyslexia spelling and writing tasks to determine the student’s level of achievement in these areas. It also tests the student’s working memory, which is needed to connect letters with sounds, decode words, keep words in mind while reading them and string words together to form sentences. It is common for students with dyslexia to have relatively circumscribed weaknesses in the phonological component of language processing but have overall oral and listening comprehension skills that are typically average or above.

Diagnosis
To diagnose dyslexia, a qualified professional should collect information from multiple sources including informal observation, conversations with the student and parents/guardians, teacher reports and educational assessments. This should include a complete evaluation of cognitive abilities (such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and language development/processing (including phonological processing, morphological skills, word recognition and vocabulary).

It is also important to consider how a student performs in other academic areas, such as math, writing and grammar. A dyslexia evaluation should identify weaknesses in all of these areas.

Dyslexia testing is often done when students have obvious struggles with reading or writing. These may include difficulty with sounding out letters, confusing similar-looking words and a low reading comprehension. Having dyslexia is not something that should be viewed as negative, in fact, many individuals with dyslexia are highly skilled and intelligent, excelling in creative thinking and problem solving. A diagnosis of dyslexia can help them unlock their talents and achieve success in the classroom and beyond.