Assessments for ages 7 (second half of 1st grade) through adult

Please refer to Early Screening ages 4-6 for younger students who before the second half of 1st grade 
or Adult Consultation and Services for more specific information on adult assessments

​Every student is unique.  Academic assessments give parents and educators insight into a student's strengths and weaknesses and offer solutions in the best approach to helping struggling learners age seven and up.  When it is not sure to what extent or intensity is necessary for intervention, assessments provide a more detailed look at the issues behind the symptoms.  Assessments are recommended but not essential to begin intervention.  Please note: While I am versed in autism spectrum disorder, I am not qualified to evaluate emotional-social behavior or advise ASD intervention. 

Slingerland Screening for Identifying children, adolescents, and adults with Specific Language Disability

​​Screening is often the first place to start.  Less intrusive to the student and cost-effective, the Slingerland Screening can point to a need for intervention and accommodations.  The Slingerland Screening may be accepted for a 504 plan of accommodations. 

​​The Slingerland Screening identifies people within a grade level or group who demonstrate speaking, reading, spelling, or writing behaviors indicative of dyslexia.  This screening is helpful when a student is under-performing school expectations, and the reason is not apparent.  Screening tasks involve various visual and auditory perception, discrimination, and memory combinations—additionally, some tests integrate kinesthetic-motor modality for written output.  Research and practice have supported the validity and usefulness of this screening.  The Slingerland Screening evaluates across intelligence levels and second language learners, and results can pinpoint a need for multisensory structured language instruction.  Also, the Slingerland Screening helps determine which accommodations would best assist the individual student in class and adults in the workplace.  The Slingerland Screening takes an hour-and-a-half of the student's time.  The cost for children and adolescents is $520.  It includes an hour parent meeting to discuss outcomes and a formal report. 

Formal Reading Assessment

​The purpose of a formal reading assessment is "to assess overall achievement, to compare a student's performance with others at their age or grade, or to identify comparable strengths and weaknesses with peers" (Weaver, 2007). A formal assessment is the best choice when parents are confident their child's reading struggles are due to dyslexia. Standardized scores allow a means to measure a student's personal growth in intervention. Please note: The Slingerland Screening is recommended if the goal is to identify dyslexia. ​

​I use a variety of sub-tests from formal measures, along with informal means, to assess a student's strengths and weaknesses in language against a standardized population. Experts agree that phonological awareness, listening comprehension, expressive vocabulary, sound-symbol association, word identification, spelling, word attack, rapid automatic naming, oral reading fluency (rate and accuracy), word comprehension, and passage comprehension play essential roles in identifying impaired readers or those with dyslexia. Conclusions and recommendations will be based on a compilation of suggestions from experts for a general population and my expertise. Testing can take two to four hours, over one to two sessions. The cost ranges from $750-$975 and includes an hour parent meeting to discuss outcomes and a formal report. 

Full Academic Assessment

​ ​A formal assessment is best when a student is home-schooled or attending a private school. Parents are encouraged to request their children be evaluated for special education services through a written request if attending public school. Public schools rarely take private reports for an individual education plan. Please refer to the Slingerland Screening (above) for a cost-effective way for parents to know if dyslexia is present and if they should move forward with the school for further testing.

​Using the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, 3rd Edition, and other formal/informal tools, this evaluation looks at the student's current academic strengths and weaknesses, including math and writing. The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement is an educational tool for children measuring math, reading, written language, and oral language. The results of this evaluation help determine an intervention plan. Conclusions and recommendations will be based on a compilation of suggestions from experts for a general population and my expertise. Testing can take three to six hours over two to three sessions. The cost ranges from $1,265-$1,850 and includes ​an hour parent meeting to discuss outcomes and a formal report.