ROGUE VALLEY LEARNING

Parents often ask me how to get their child tested for Dyslexia.  

 

This is what I tell them:

 

Where to go for testing depends a bit on the purpose of the diagnosis. Even if you are homeschooling, you can request testing from the public schools. Unfortunately, the schools in the Rogue Valley do not acknowledge that dyslexia exists. They might give you a diagnosis of specific language disability, which is the category dyslexia falls in under the federal IDEA act. That would enable your child to get accommodations in the future on standardized tests.  There are some physicians who may provide a diagnosis as well.

 

If you want a complete diagnosis, you need to find an neuropsychologist or educational psychologist who is an expert in the field and have a complete psych-ed battery of tests.

I recommend Stephanie Verlinden at the Children's Program in Portland (www.childrensprogram.com).

 

If the purpose of diagnosis is to know how best to help your child, I do informal diagnostic testing and can give you my opinion based on thirty years of working with children with dyslexia. Because I am not a psychologist, I do not do the psychological or IQ testing, and I do not give a formal diagnosis that would be accepted by a school system.