Are you looking for a dyslexia test or an ADHD test for your child?
If you are questioning if your child has dyslexia or ADHD, you might be up at night searching for “dyslexia tests” or “ADHD tests” to see what comes up. But what you might discover are terms more like a Psychoeducational assessment (also known as psyched assessments, neuro-psych assessments, educational assessments) which can sound scary, but don’t let the big term intimidate you.
These assessments are simply made up of a series of games, questions, reading, activities and puzzles. They can be engaging, fun, interactive sessions.
The psychologist, psychometrist or other professional (depending on who is administering and analyzing the testing) is using these activities for so much more than what you see at face value.
How your child interacts, responds and the strategies they use will provide a lot of information to the tester about your child. Testing will help to show academic achievement, but will also help to uncover both the strengths and struggles in perceptual and cognitive processing. Depending on the evaluations being used, they will be able to get insight into things like:
How your child thinks
What specific areas/tasks they are struggling with
How quickly they perform tasks
Behavioural, social or emotional struggles
Learning styles
Organizational skills
Memory function
Attention to tasks/Sustainability of attention
Auditory processing
Executive functions skills
Visual processing
Reading ability and phonological processing
….and so much more
These can all provide valuable information, not just with the end goal of getting a diagnosis, but to try to understand the individual learning strengths and needs of your child. The psychologist will analyze the results, and provide an in-depth written report.
Though many kids get referred to a professional for testing because something of concern has been noticed, not all educational assessments will end in a diagnosis. You may just learn that your child may have some specific areas that they need work on (and other areas that are strengths).
Assessments are one part of what can help to diagnose learning differences such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, executive function challenges, dysgraphia and ADHD. Think of them as one tool in the toolbox to gaining a deep and thorough understanding of your child.
So what sorts of activities are used to complete and interpret dyslexia assessments, ADHD assessments, and other learning difference assessments?
Spelling nonsense words
Categorizing items
Making association between items
Memory games
Following directions
Mental manipulation
Concentration activities
Associative thinking
Visual-motor activities/writing
Sequencing tasks
Visual processing tasks
Reasoning activities
Verbal expression of ideas and answers
Questions for showing general knowledge
...and so much more.
The data that comes out of a testing session can be an incredible tool in your toolkit of ways to help you (and your child’s teacher) to understand your child, and for them to understand themselves.
There are many different types of tests that may be used, depending on who is doing the testing, and what the reason for the testing is. These may include tests such as the:
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement
Stanford Binet
Conor ADHD Assessment
Bender Motor-Gestalt Test
Reading Inventories
BRIEF Inventory (for Executive Function)
...and many others.
It can definitely feel overwhelming when you first receive a Neuropsych Report/Psychoeducational Assessment. There is a lot of information, data, statistics and jargon in them. We are here to help you break it down, and to make sense of it….because the better you understand it, the better you will understand your child.
We are excited that we have a Guest Expert, Dr. Lindsey Dogali, talk to us about “Making Sense of a Neuropsych Report”. Join us live or watch her masterclass!