Academic testing may assist in determining your child’s levels of reading, writing, mathematics, and/or processing skills and may be used to identify your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses.
A psychoeducational evaluation from ABC Testing Services LLC, may include testing in the following areas:
Academic
Cognitive
Processing
Visual-Motor Integration
Phonological processing is the ability to discern basic units of sound and apply grapheme-phoneme relations when reading and speaking. A student who presents with difficulties in this area may have limited sound-to-symbol skills, may take longer or be unable to recognize sounds, may have limited ability to identify parts of words, may make errors in speech and/or written language, and may not be able to remember things that are presented orally. A deficit in one or more of these types of phonological processing abilities is viewed as the most common cause of learning disabilities in general, and of reading disabilities in particular. Moreover, the awareness of phonological structure of language is necessary for basic reading, reading comprehension, spelling, and written expression and is the single-best indicator of early literacy and reading performance.
Reading disorders occur when a person has trouble with any part of the reading process such as reading fluency, reading accuracy and rate, and reading comprehension. Reading disorders typically manifest at a young age and usually result from difficulties in understanding and applying spoken language. Reading disorders are not a type of intellectual and developmental disorder, nor are they a sign of lower intelligence or unwillingness to learn. Children with reading disorders may have problems in the following areas:
• Recognizing basic and more complex words
• Difficulty spelling
• Difficulties with handwriting
• Difficulties reading with proper expression and intonation
• Difficulties understanding the written word.
Reference:
National Institutes of Health
What Are Reading Disorders? (2014, February 28). Retrieved from https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/idds
Written expression disorders are characterized as having writing skills that fall substantially below those expected given the child’s chronological age, intelligence, and/or educational experience. Deficits in written expression may affect academic achievement and/or activities that require writing skills. The child may have difficulties with grammar, spelling, mechanics, and/or a limited ability to build proper sentences.
Reference:
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)
Math disorders occur when a child has deficits in basic math skills, number concepts, math calculation, and word problem solving. Children with difficulties in this area cannot grasp basic concepts even when they put forth maximum effort and memorize basic math facts. They may also have trouble in the following areas:
• Recognizing numbers and symbols
• Identifying signs and their meanings
• Learning and recalling basic math facts
• Writing numerals clearly
• Applying math concepts to everyday life
• Finding different approaches to the same math problem
• Math rules and procedures
• Poor sense of direction