Dyslexia screening and Assessment

Our dyslexia assessment evaluates core reading skills, offering a more precise diagnosis regardless of age. Understanding Dyslexia

Start here. The first step for a parent or teacher to help a child, is to learn the basics of dyslexia and the most common signs. Dyslexia is a neurological challenge affecting the brain’s phonological processing, which can lead to various difficulties in reading and writing. These include:

1. Reduced Reading Speed

The brain’s ability to connect letter symbols to sounds and produce coherent answers is less efficient, resulting in slower, more hesitant reading with frequent errors.

2. Confusion with Similar Letters and Words

Children with dyslexia often struggle with similar-looking letters and words, such as confusing ‘b’ and ‘d’, or ‘was’ and ‘saw’. They may also reverse letters or numbers, such as writing ‘9’ as ‘6’ or ‘5’ as ‘2’. Initially, this was believed to stem from visual processing difficulties, but it’s now understood to be a phonological deficit. Some may also have difficulty distinguishing left from right.

3. Reversing Letter Sequences

This is most evident in spelling, where a child might know how to spell a word but have difficulty outputting the information in the correct order. Common errors include writing ‘dose’ instead of ‘does’ or ‘hlep’ instead of ‘help’. Omitting letters when spelling is also common.

4. Inconsistent Word Recognition

Children with dyslexia may struggle to recognize words they’ve recently read or learned, as well as have difficulty recalling words from their visual memory. This can result in forgetting words shortly after learning them or having difficulty recognizing familiar words.

5. Difficulty with Homophones and Irregular Words

Homophones, words that sound the same but are spelled differently (e.g., ‘their’ and ‘there’), and irregular words that don’t follow typical phonics rules (e.g., ‘does’ pronounced as ‘duz’) can be particularly challenging for children with dyslexia.

6. Copying and Writing Challenges

Copying text is a significant challenge for children with dyslexia, as they may struggle to remember even small portions of text at a time. Glancing away can cause them to forget what they’ve copied, and the copied text is often riddled with inaccuracies or incomplete.

7. Reduced Written Output

Due to the challenges mentioned above, children with dyslexia may produce less written work compared to their peers. While they may have many ideas, expressing these thoughts in words can be a time-consuming process.