Can I get just dyslexia/dyscalculia testing or do I have to get the full workup for my child?
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Anonymous
| That's my question - we don't have $5K to spend, and my DD has no signs of any attention disorders, she just can't read/write well and struggles with math. We live in Falls Church, would love recommendations on what to do/where to go. We don't even want to bother with getting a school assessment. |
Anonymous
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I don't think you can without doing the full assessment. DS had no attention issues (that we were aware of) just reading and math issues. We did the full 2 day testing and turns out he does have inattentive ADHD in addition to dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. We didn't bother with the school system either.
We did Mindwell in Chantilly and it was around $3500 back in Nov 2020. |
Anonymous
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You need the full assessment.
It allows you to determine what is causing the learning issue. For example, difficulty reading could be due to ADHD, dyslexia, or both. It’s very important to unpack all the possible contributing factors. |
Anonymous
| you want the full assessment. these issues and diagnoses tend to travel in packs. Call the providers and ask for their recos on how to skinny it down cost-wise. |
Anonymous
| This is a local testing problem in NoVa. In other U.S. locations you can go a la carte. |
Anonymous
| Is she taking the RAM test at school? That's supposed to be good for catching dyslexia |
Anonymous
| We did a targeted set of testing last fall with Lisa Lenhart in Rockville. Basically she would have recommended a more complete battery based on how those turned out, but we didn't have to in the end. |
Anonymous
OP here, no, I don't think so. This is FCPS. |
Anonymous
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For my DS, I asked a SLP to do a CTOPP. It was inexpensive. Based on that (really low sub scores), I then had someone due a NP (Baltimore do price was about $2k.) I wouldn’t have continued if CTOPP was average. Kid really excelled in math though so I knew it wasn’t processing or ability though.
You could go that route and then go through school system for free, but you’ll want the full picture of everything going on. |
Anonymous
NP here. Do you have any specific places? We would come out ahead taking a family vacation to Cleveland or wherever and getting testing there. |
Anonymous
| A friend elsewhere in the country just had her daughter assessed this week. They chose to work through an organization that specializes in dyslexia and doesn't do full neuropsych, but even they always also do an assessment for ADHD as part of the process. The diagnoses so often co-occur, but can also present in ways that one looks like the others, so they find they only get valid results when they do both assessments. |
Anonymous
| The Summit School in Annapolis is closer to $2000. |
Anonymous
| Not doing full testing is a big mistake. There are so many cognitive process that impact reading. If you don't test those areas (working memory, processing speed, attention) you run the risk of addressing a problem using an intervention approach that is inappropriate. |
Anonymous
I live in Arizona and they do just dyslexia testing here. https://www.dyslexiapros.com/dyslexiatesting May not be worth it with the cost of travel. We used to live in the DC area and did our testing there. |
Anonymous
The bulk of the cost of testing is the aptitude (WISC-V) and ability (WJ-IV, WIAT-IV, etc) measures, supplemental reading and math assessments and some basic neuropsychological tests are also pretty key. Some practices have a set battery for these, others will choose tests based on presenting issues and early test results. The assessments for anxiety, depression, and ASD are basically self reports and only a fraction of the cost of the assessment at any location, but they are essential to rule out other confounding factors. In DC the lowest price I have seen recently is in the low 2000's the highest is around 6000. Most are in the middle. Signed - A Psychologist who does assessments |