Learning Disabilities Testing

Millions of students each year go through learning disabilities testing to determine the severity of their problem. Each test depends on the type of disability a student is suspected of having, based on observances of the parent, teacher and even outside sources like psychologists.

An IQ test is not typically considered a tool in the arsenal of resources for learning disabilities testing. In fact, people with learning disabilities often have average or above average IQs but they just have problems processing information in certain ways. An educator like a diagnostician or counselor is trained to evaluate and decide which tests should be conducted to uncover the depth of a learning disability.

Dyslexia is a common learning disability and thousands of kids have some type of learning disabilities testing for it each year. Actually, children with suspected dyslexia may have to take as many as 15 different tests to accurately assess how the disability affects various areas. The same principle applies to other disabilities like attention deficit disorder, expressive writing or even language comprehension. For the most part, the scores from this testing is compared to the national average of children the same age. From there, educators can determine how well a student performs based on the average child.

Based on the results of the learning disabilities testing, the child’s school will work on creating an individualized plan to tackle the disability so that the student can catch up to the same grade level as their peers. All parties involved with the learning disabilities testing from the teacher to the diagnostician to the speech pathologist and even the pediatrician of the student are involved in creating a workable individualized educational program.

If a parent does not believe that their school is providing adequate testing and educational programs for their child who may have a learning disability, they may have to go to a licensed and trained educational psychologist not affiliated with the school to find answers.  This outside source is also great as a second opinion when diagnosing a learning disability.