Back to School: Assessments, Evaluations & Meetings 101

Dyslexia affects as many as 1:5; Many are bright and motivated students who have average or above average intelligence. The "stigma" of a learning disability can be crippling to s

elf, triggering fear, anxiety and mental health concerns. Dyslexia and/or reading difficulties is directly linked to high percentages of our prison population with over 80% prison inmates being illiterate. (See Prison to Pipeline Research below)

--> Assessment is the first step in identifying these students early to make sure they receive the effective instruction they need to succeed. Let's break it down...

Identification:

First, The symptoms of dyslexia are problems with reading and decoding, or single word reading, or poor reading fluency, and poor spelling. Phonological weaknesses, or specifically language-based difficulties, are usually the underlying cause of reading problems associated with dyslexia.

*Dyslexia is language based, neurological in origin. (see IDA below)

Phonological processing problems are the root cause of dyslexia. This refers to the ability to analyze spoken language — from identifying individual words, to parts of syllables, and then into the smallest parts called phonemes. Some dyslexics experience problems with Rapid Automatic Naming that can compound reading challenges.

Assessments:

Second, While criterion-referenced dyslexia testing batteries used for assessment will vary based on the assessor, the following specific areas should all be tested, based on what is age-appropriate for the child. Many states will also require cognitive testing to rule out an intellectual disability. Here is a list of Assessments that an evaluator should be using to identify Dyslexia:

• Phonological Awareness

• Phonological or Language Based Memory (Verbal Comprehension)

• Rapid Automatic Naming

• Vocabulary

• Phonics Skills

• Decoding of Real and Nonsense Words

• Oral Reading Fluency: Single Words, Sentences, Paragraphs

• Spelling of Real and Nonsense Words

• Writing on Sentence Level and/or Paragraph Level

Assessments should be completed by an Educational Diagnostician, LSSP, Neuropyschiatrists, Neuropyschologists, and Certified Academic Language Therapists (non-cognitive assessments).

When to seek an assessment for identification of Dyslexia:

One of the most commonly asked questions is “what age can you test for dyslexia.”

Research demonstrates that direct instruction, provided appropriately, beginning kindergarten through third grade, can help even the most severely dyslexic-impaired students to catch up to grade level literacy skills and close the gap for most poor readers.

Early intervention of dyslexia is ideal. The longer before we identify, the longer that child relies on their “masking” skills and the greater the impact on the child’s self-concept and social-emotional growth. However, that does not mean you cannot test/ evaluate if a child is over the age of 10+... in fact, intermediate and secondary grades can often "compensate" or they may be twice exceptional learners (gifted/talented & have dyslexia), so it can be easy to overlook these students. (See 2E below)

Meetings 101:

Requesting a Full Individual Evaluation can be intimidating to parents. However, the BEST thing you can do to advocate for your student is to request, in writing, a formal request for your student to have a full individual evaluation per your school/ district. **(Note, if you are requesting this in writing, I would copy the school administration, the educational diagnostician and other special education teachers to be sure this request is promptly handled). After the timeline of an evaluation has been established, and it is time to sit for the meeting (some states call this IEP meetings, ARD meetings etc), then you will advocate for your child's evaluation by listening and learning all available diagnoses/ identifications available. This can be a meeting anywhere from 45 minutes- two hours. However, I have also heard of the evaluator calling prior to the meeting to discuss via phone conference all necessary items, in order to save time during the in-person meeting. It is good to note, if you feel the evaluation process has not been completed, or if you do not agree, you have the ability, as a parent, to advocate for a parent-requested reevaluation (Reed/ IEE for your child), typically within the one school year. (See Understood.org below)

I hope this helps as you process through your child's educational journey! You are gift and the best one who can advocate for your child!

Many blessings to you all,

Citations: Moody, K & Holzer, C & Roman, M & Paulsen, K & Freeman, D & Haynes, M & James, T. (2000). Prevalence of dyslexia among Texas prison inmates. Texas medicine. 96. 69-75. Approximately 80% of prison inmates are reported to be functionally illiterate. We hypothesized that poor single word decoding (the chief feature of dyslexia) accounts for a significant percentage of that rate. We studied 253 subjects selected randomly from more than 130,000 Texas prison inmates. Among them, we conducted a cross-sectional sample survey of recently admitted Texas inmates, beginning with social and educational background and followed by an educational test battery that included measures of word attack skill and reading comprehension. Deficient performance was defined primarily as single word decoding performance that measured below the 25th percentile on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. We found that 47.8% of the inmates were deficient in word attack skills. Word attack skills were detected in each group defined by gender and ethnicity. Nearly two thirds of the subjects scored poorly in reading comprehension.

International Dyslexia Association https://dyslexiaida.org/dyslexia-assessment-what-is-it-and-how-can-it-help-2/

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/reevaluations-for-special-education

2E: https://childmind.org/article/twice-exceptional-kids-both-gifted-and-challenged/#:~:text=They're%20called%20%E2%80%9Ctwice%2D,can%20be%20tough%20to%20understand.