Kindergarten ( age 5) through college ( age 21)

The test battery ranges for 1 hour in length for younger students to 1 ½ hours for upper elementary and older students. I give the test at my office located in Madison, Alabama.

You will get the test results on the day of the assessment. After testing your child, I will take about 20 minutes to score the test protocols, plot the scores on a profile sheet you can see specific areas of strengths and weaknesses and then review the test results in detail with you. I will interpret all the test scores so you will have a clear understanding of test outcomes.

It all depends on the profile of strengths and weakness determined from the assessment results. I always have comprehensive recommendations for school and home to assist your child in filling in reading and/or spelling gaps and ensure that he is building a strong foundation for literacy development. If private tutoring is needed, I will provide names of potential interventionists depending on your area. The recommendations will be very specific to your child’s individual learning needs.

In some instances more extensive language, cognitive or behavioral testing is warranted to get the “bigger picture” of what may be interfering with your child’s academic growth and development. Speech/Language Pathologists are qualified to complete comprehensive speech and language tests. Psychologists will complete a psychoeducational test battery (i.e., intelligence, achievement, behavior). If I suspect dysgraphia, I will refer you to an Occupational Therapist for a comprehensive evaluation of fine motor and handwriting skills.

( part 1) The test battery consists of a variety of standardized and non-standardized tests. The Dyslexia Assessment Battery ( ages 7-21) is very comprehensive in the assessment of reading ( i.e., sight word recognition, phonemic decoding, fluency and comprehension) , written spelling, oral language ( i.e., listening comprehension and oral expression) and phonological processing (i.e., phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid symbolic naming). I also complete a handwriting analysis to determine if there are signs of dysgraphia. In older students, I get a sample of their expository writing skills to determine if they may need additional support with written expression.

( part 2) The Emergent Literacy Battery ( ages 5-6) is specifically designed to look at the characteristics or “red flags” in young students considered “at-risk” for having dyslexia. It will look in-depth at your child’s abilities in phonological processing which is the neurological “root” of dyslexia. There is also a strong oral language component to make sure broad-based language issues aren’t contributing to your child’s learning difficulties. I will also assess early handwriting skills to make sure they are at grade-level expectations.

Not necessarily if that’s the only thing you are observing. It is not uncommon for some students to continue reversing letters or numbers until the end of their seventh year. However, if your child is also struggling to meet reading benchmark expectations or have other significant handwriting issues (i.e., poor pencil grip/stabilization, difficulty anchoring letters on the baseline, forming letters in an odd manner or extreme difficulty with legibility) then I would recommend a comprehensive evaluation.

The truth of the matter is that there is a pretty high co-morbidity between dyslexia and attention. Approximately half of the students with dyslexia also have an attention disorder such as ADD/ADHD. I would recommend getting the dyslexia piece of the puzzle figured out before going to a psychologist to test for attention problems.

Current samples of school work (i.e., writing samples, spelling tests, class assignments), any prior testing completed by the school (i.e., dyslexia screener, DIBELS test results, STAR test results), progress reports and report cards. If your child is in Special Education, a copy of the Eligibility Determination Report which has a list of all the tests the school system administered to qualify your child for Special Education and a copy of his current IEP. I will be especially interested in the reading goals on the IEP.

You are welcome to wait in the waiting room while I test your child. If you want to go somewhere else while the test is completed you are welcome to do that, as well. Most younger kids are more comfortable knowing a parent is nearby but older students don’t mind having their parents leave during the testing.

Certainly, if necessary. However, I have only had a few students over the years that couldn’t get beyond their initial apprehension and feel comfortable with me. Most students actually perform better on the test ( and are less distracted) when their parents are not in the room.

Unfortunately, Insurance companies typically do not pay for educational testing. I am always aware that this is an out-of-pocket expense for parents and strive to keep my testing fee reasonable. If the $400.00 testing fee will present a financial hardship for your family, I will work with you to come up with a payment plan. I never want a child to be excluded from testing due to a financial issue.

Probably. Approximately 80% of students that qualify for special education services due to poor reading have dyslexia. The only way to know for sure is to complete a dyslexia-specific test battery.