For Families
Screening: Educational screenings can help identify your child’s academic strengths and the areas in which he or she they may need support. A screening for dyslexia may take between 10 and 20 minutes. The purpose of a screener is to:
- Identify risk
- Indicate areas that may require further testing
If the screener shows indications of risk for dyslexia, an Educational Evaluation & Consultation will be available to identify specific areas of educational opportunity in reading, spelling, sight recognition, penmanship, oral passage reading, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Educational Evaluation & Consultation
The Educational Evaluation & Consultation is a deeper dive. This evaluation will take into consideration your child’s previous educational history, and diagnoses. It will also look at available resources, personality, and preferences in order to recommend possible next steps.
With this detailed information, we will help your family locate the best possible educational environment for your child. Once the child is placed in the optimal environment, timely and individualized instruction can begin to remediate any gaps in foundational knowledge or skills.
The assessment cost includes the time spent testing your child, scoring and interpretation, report writing, and a two-hour caregiver consultation to review results and discuss recommendations.
Many educational challenges and learning disabilities are not considered medical issues, so testing is not covered by medical insurance.
*This is NOT an evaluation for a diagnosis. You will need to contact an educational psychologist for an official evaluation for the purpose of diagnosing dyslexia. Keep in mind that some students find the support they need without an expensive psychological diagnosis. This may save the student valuable instructional time and unnecessary emotional impact.
For Schools
In 2018, Washington State passed Senate Bill 6162, calling for annual dyslexia screenings in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) produced a list of approved screeners that address the areas of risk for dyslexia, including Rapid Automatized Naming Skills (RAN), Phonemic Awareness, Phonological Awareness, and Letter-Sound Knowledge.
Many educational institutions and homeschooling families do not have the training, resources, or manpower to screen their students. Because of this, many students in these educational environments slip through the cracks and do not receive the help they need.
Using state-approved screeners, we will locate K-2nd grade students who are at risk for early reading difficulties and may require instructional support. Screening is an important part of the evaluation process.
The screening takes between 10-20 minutes per student. A quiet location free of distractions will be necessary for accurate results. We will assess one student at a time, allowing the teacher or parent to continue their routine with other students.
Ideally, all students in kindergarten, first, and 2nd grades are screened for dyslexia in September. Screening early in the school year allows teachers to use data to make informed decisions about instruction. In addition, progress monitoring can begin as soon as possible for at-risk students once they have been identified by the screener. Data will also shed light on individual needs for instruction, progress monitoring, and referrals for further testing.
When screening results have been compiled and analyzed, we will follow up to provide results and recommendations for administrators, teachers, and parents.
Dyslexia screenings can be a powerful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of reading instruction at the school, classroom, and student levels. For example, if screening results show more than 20% of your student population in a particular grade level are “at risk” for indicators of dyslexia, schools have an opportunity to evaluate their universal instruction and adjust to meet the needs of their students. Identifying and addressing gaps in universal instruction also relieves the pressure on secondary and tertiary resources, such as special education.
Parents also benefit from early communication that their child may need additional support with reading. Before and after screening data has been collected, we will offer a template for schools to communicate with parents about the process.