Adult Dyslexia Assessments - £600

 Many adults reach adulthood without ever having been assessed for dyslexia. You may have developed effective ways of managing your difficulties, done well academically or professionally, or simply assumed that things such as spelling, reading, remembering information or organising written work were harder for you than for everyone else.

Sometimes people begin to consider dyslexia when their child is assessed and they recognise many of the same characteristics in themselves. For others, it may be starting university, professional training or a new job that makes previously manageable difficulties more noticeable.

An adult dyslexia assessment can help you understand how you process information, where your strengths lie and why some tasks may require considerably more effort than others.

 Adults seek dyslexia assessments for many different reasons. You might:

• have always wondered whether you are dyslexic;
• find reading, spelling or writing unexpectedly difficult despite being capable in other areas;
• find that you need to read information several times before it stays with you;
• struggle to organise your thoughts quickly when writing;
• find note-taking, proofreading or working under time pressure particularly demanding;
• have difficulties remembering verbal information or sequences;
• be considering university or further professional study;
• want evidence to support discussions about reasonable adjustments at work or in education; or
• simply want to understand yourself and the way you learn more clearly.

You do not need to be struggling or failing to benefit from an assessment. Many adults have developed very successful strategies over the years. An assessment can help identify both the strengths that have enabled you to compensate and the areas that continue to create additional effort.

 Before the assessment, I will ask you to give me some background information about your education, work and any difficulties you have experienced. Where available, previous school reports, assessment reports or other relevant information can also be useful, although it does not matter if you no longer have these.

The assessment itself usually takes around two hours and consists of a series of short activities rather than one long test.

It explores areas relevant to dyslexia, which may include:

• language and reasoning skills;
• reading accuracy, fluency and efficiency;
• spelling;
• aspects of writing;
• phonological processing – how you recognise, remember and manipulate the sounds within words;
• verbal memory and working memory;
• processing and retrieval speed; and
• other areas where appropriate to your individual profile.

The purpose is not simply to produce a dyslexia/non-dyslexia result. I will look at the pattern across your results, alongside your history and your experience of literacy and learning, to understand your individual profile.

 Following the assessment, you will receive a full diagnostic assessment report.

This will explain:

• whether the evidence supports a diagnosis of dyslexia;
• your individual pattern of strengths and difficulties;
• your assessment results and what they mean in everyday terms;
• how your profile may affect work, study and everyday tasks; and
• practical recommendations and adjustments that may help.

We will also discuss the findings so that you have an opportunity to ask questions and, importantly, understand what the results actually mean for you.

If the assessment does not identify dyslexia, it is not a wasted assessment. The results can still provide useful information about your learning and processing profile and help identify appropriate strategies or next steps.

 A diagnostic assessment can be particularly useful if you are considering returning to education as an adult. My dyslexia assessments are carried out in accordance with current professional assessment standards. I am a qualified Specialist Assessor and hold a current Assessment Practising Certificate (APC).

If you are seeking an assessment specifically for university, Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) or another particular purpose, please tell me when you enquire so that we can make sure the assessment is appropriate for what you need.

 You may also want an assessment because dyslexic difficulties are affecting you at work. The assessment can help identify the particular demands that are difficult for you and suggest practical strategies or adjustments. Depending on your individual profile and your role, these might include changes to how written information is presented, assistive technology, additional time for some tasks, use of text-to-speech or speech-to-text software, or different ways of recording and organising information.

The aim is not simply to attach a label. It is to provide useful information that helps you understand what makes a difference for you.

 If you are considering an assessment, get in touch using the email at the top of the page. You do not need to be certain that you are dyslexic before contacting me.

We can establish what you are hoping to find out and whether a full diagnostic assessment is the most appropriate next step for you.