Assessment Guide
If you believe your child may have a reading delay or Dyslexia, screen them for free today!
The Online Reading Tutor screening assessment is the first stage of our app. It can help identify specific areas of difficulty in reading and will let you know your learners’ risk level in regards to dyslexia or reading delays. The assessment only takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete and you will be provided with immediate results of the assessment via email.
Understanding the results
Risk Types
The assessment determines if the reader is at one of three risk levels - High Risk, Low Risk, or Pass (No Risk).
High Risk:
A High Risk score means that there are very strong indicators that your learner has a reading delay or dyslexia. If a learner scores as High Risk, they have been determined to have significant issues with decoding. In a High Risk learner, written language may be being processed differently than in a fluent reader. It makes learning to read very difficult and frustrating for them. In this case, there is a high likelihood of dyslexia.
Low Risk:
A Low Risk score means that there are strong indicators that your learner has a reading delay or dyslexia. If a learner scores as Low Risk, they have been determined to have some issues with decoding. For Low Risk learners, written language may be being processed more slowly than in a fluent reader. Slow processing has a direct impact on their comprehension skills, so they will likely have a hard time understanding what they are reading. In this case, there is a higher likelihood of a reading delay.
Pass (No Risk):
If your learner passes the assessment, there are no strong indicators of decoding issues present. However, if you believe they are still experiencing issues with their reading, it may be that they read slowly or with an inconsistent speed. These two problems will hinder their comprehension of what they are reading.
Error Types
The detailed results in the PDF attachment on your assessment email will outline step-by-step which areas your learner specifically struggled with. There are three types of errors a reader can have while taking the assessment - Visual, Auditory, and Timeout.
Visual Errors:
These errors are represented by an eye icon. They indicate a question that your learner has answered incorrectly due to the way that their brain processed what they were looking at. For example, they could have read the word “was” but understood it as “saw”.
Auditory Errors:
These errors are represented by a volume icon. Auditory errors indicate a question that your learner has answered incorrectly due to the way that their brain processed what they were hearing. In their brain, the letter of the alphabet is not being linked to the sound that it is intended to make.
Timeout Errors:
These errors are represented by a clock icon. Each question in our screening assessment has a time restriction. We use this to gauge how quickly the learner can recall a correct answer, which shows us how fluently they can decode. Timeout errors indicate that they were not able to process the information within the given time frame.
Using the results
There are a few ways you can leverage these results:
Ask for accommodations at school
You can use these results to explain to your learner’s school why they may need classroom accommodations. For example: if they have many timeout errors, they may need extra time on tests. You can use the data from this assessment to advocate for your learner’s needs. You can learn more about classroom accommodations in our blog post Classroom Accommodations.
Present at an IEP, IPRC or 504 Plan meeting
You can also use these results to advocate for an IEP (USA and Canada), a 504 plan(USA) or an IPRC (Canada). In our blog post about Preparing for an IEP Meeting, we emphasize organizing your files and doing your prep work. These results can be applied to both!
Gaining a better understanding of your learner’s struggles
You can review your learner’s errors and see what the common threads are. When reading at home with your learner, you’ll be prepared for what words and letters they may struggle with and be ready to help them. You can also spend time targeting and practicing those specific areas of struggle together.
