What happens during an assessment?

A Diagnostic Assessment will usually take up to three hours to complete.

The assessment will take place in a quiet private room free from disturbances with a writing surface/table available.

If the assessment is taking place at the assessor’s premises, you should make sure you know where you are going and how to get there. Also, allow enough time to arrive on time for your appointment.

During an assessment the assessor will carry out a series of tests to explore aspects of underlying ability such as:

• Reading, writing and spelling
• Handwriting and fine motor skills
• Underlying learning skills: phonological awareness, speed of processing and memory, speech and language and auditory processing.

There is usually an informal chat before the assessment to gather a little more background information.

The aim is

• To formally diagnose dyslexia (if this is supported by the test results)
• To assess performance on a range of items, allowing the assessor to consider strengths and weaknesses. This isn’t an exam so there is no “pass” or “fail” - the intention is to help highlight the person’s individual style of learning or working and what does/doesn’t work for them.
• To collect information about reading, spelling and writing skills.
• To consider other factors which may be affecting learning.
  
• To identify whether any Reasonable Adjustments will need to be made in order for a person to fully access the curriculum and exams.
• To identify whether Reasonable Adjustments need to be made to a person's place of work.
  
  

After the assessment the assessor may be able to provide some insight but they will need time to calculate the test scores and analyse the results in order to give a diagnosis. This information will be provided in the subsequent report.