Testing for dyslexia before college

[Anonymous]

I’ve long suspected that senior DD is dyslexic, like me. She has a diagnosis of anxiety and has received accommodations in MCPS since elementary school. She was tested initially for ADHD (negative) and dyslexia (borderline) seven years ago. When I asked MCPS to test her for dyslexia, her high school refused. I didn’t push or test her privately because it’s expensive and she was performing so well in school (4.7 WGPA with good rigor).

Now that she’s headed off to college, I want to get her the supports she needs to do well in a more rigorous environment. Our pediatrician recommends I wait until DD knows where she’s headed and then work with the disabilities office to make sure she gets the right kind of documentation. Does that make sense to those who’ve been through this? I tried to get her on the list at Children’s last year and failed, so I’m worried I won’t get this done in time if I wait. Any recommendations of where to go for this testing?

[Anonymous]

What makes you think she’s dyslexic?

[Anonymous]

What accommodations does she need that she's not already getting?

You'll likely need updated paperwork (details depending on the school, but most likely within 3 years), but you don't necessarily need a different diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

I’m her mom, I’m dyslexic, and I know her. She’s bright, analytical, focused, hard working, and extremely anxious. She often gets called out for not following verbal directions, missing important information during lectures, has trouble learning languages, and has slow processing speed. Her test anxiety is extreme. When she took the PSAT, she didn’t receive her accommodations by mistake and scored 850. Put her head on the desk and cried. After working with a tutor, taking several practice tests, and receiving her accommodations, she scored 1350. Her scores, while much improved, still don’t match her GPA and don’t reflect her abilities, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m her mom, I’m dyslexic, and I know her. She’s bright, analytical, focused, hard working, and extremely anxious. She often gets called out for not following verbal directions, missing important information during lectures, has trouble learning languages, and has slow processing speed. Her test anxiety is extreme. When she took the PSAT, she didn’t receive her accommodations by mistake and scored 850. Put her head on the desk and cried. After working with a tutor, taking several practice tests, and receiving her accommodations, she scored 1350. Her scores, while much improved, still don’t match her GPA and don’t reflect her abilities, in my opinion.

Sorry, I was responding to the PP who asked why I suspect dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What accommodations does she need that she's not already getting?

You'll likely need updated paperwork (details depending on the school, but most likely within 3 years), but you don't necessarily need a different diagnosis.

I’m not sure what accommodations she’ll need in college. 1-1 tutoring and extra time would be helpful. Written notes for lectures would be helpful.

Maybe these would be provided with a diagnosis of anxiety anyway. But I feel like her anxiety is caused by her dyslexia - not separate from it - and understanding her strengths and weaknesses will help her.

[Anonymous]

I would absolutely get the testing now since it can take a while to get in and get the reports back. I wouldn't wait until she figures out where she wants to go. Disability offices are completely different at each college. Some are great, and some are downright terrible. You want to go in with a diagnosis and list of accommodations that you would like to request (and have to fight for at some schools). They will not be volunteering accommodations for you. I have a kid at college with T1 which has specific medical accommodations she needs and sometimes even getting those is a fight.

What accommodations do you have for anxiety? My dyslexic kid is a freshman in HS and his accommodations are:
Extended Time Testing - Time-and-a-Half (+50%)
Ability to type class notes, if needed
Word Processing for Written Work
Audio Book
Laptop with Accessibility Applications (Example: Electronic Dictionary/Thesaurus, Grammarly, Speech to Text,
etc.)
No Penalty for spelling
ASL waiver for World Language

Most of them he probably won't need in college since almost all of this is already allowed (aside from the extra time), but we will still pursue them once he gets to college.

I hear you on the text anxiety. My kid has it as well. He does not do well on standardized tests or tests in general. His school gave the PSAT last week to all students as purely a practice test. No accommodations were given to anyone. We knew this in advance and were advised many times that this is purely a practice to get the kids ready. The scores go nowhere. I'm really interested to see how he did. It won't be pretty.

[Anonymous]

I think you will need a neuropsych exam with tester providing a written analysis with recommended accommodations. At least that’s what we’ve been doing every few years (regular retests required every 4 years or so) since our kid was 6.

[Anonymous]

^PP We had testing done at Mindwell. We got in relatively quickly (within a few weeks) but this was in 2020 in the middle of Covid. I'm not sure what their wait time is now. They don't take insurance and it was around $3,500 four years ago but we did a full 2 day neuropsych exam. Psychoeducational testing is probably less.

[Anonymous]

https://mindwell.us/testing/

[Anonymous]

If your kid was boarderline dyslexic earlier and ahas been doing well in school she may no longer test as dyslexic even though her brain wiring is characteristic of dyslexia. I’m dyslexic too and I am in my 50’s and now spell pretty well, have fine phonemic awareness, read with fluency and speed. My son was moderately dyslexic at 6 and 12, mildly dyslexic at 16. The things that remained are the poor working memory and executive functioning that arise from it, which often go along with dyslexia but are not necessarily part of everyone’s dyslexia.

I would get your daughter the full psychoeducational testing. We did ours at The Treatment and Learning Centers in Rockville. However, even if her brain wiring is dyslexic she may not get that diagnosis at this point. Still, more information about how her brain works should be helpful to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^PP We had testing done at Mindwell. We got in relatively quickly (within a few weeks) but this was in 2020 in the middle of Covid. I'm not sure what their wait time is now. They don't take insurance and it was around $3,500 four years ago but we did a full 2 day neuropsych exam. Psychoeducational testing is probably less.

We just got testing done at Mindwell and it took about six weeks to get an appointment. It was our second time getting ds tested. The results are very thorough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m her mom, I’m dyslexic, and I know her. She’s bright, analytical, focused, hard working, and extremely anxious. She often gets called out for not following verbal directions, missing important information during lectures, has trouble learning languages, and has slow processing speed. Her test anxiety is extreme. When she took the PSAT, she didn’t receive her accommodations by mistake and scored 850. Put her head on the desk and cried. After working with a tutor, taking several practice tests, and receiving her accommodations, she scored 1350. Her scores, while much improved, still don’t match her GPA and don’t reflect her abilities, in my opinion.

You didn’t mention anything about reading ability, which is the core aspect of dyslexia.

Does she think she has dyslexia or something else going on? As a rising college freshman, this should be her decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m her mom, I’m dyslexic, and I know her. She’s bright, analytical, focused, hard working, and extremely anxious. She often gets called out for not following verbal directions, missing important information during lectures, has trouble learning languages, and has slow processing speed. Her test anxiety is extreme. When she took the PSAT, she didn’t receive her accommodations by mistake and scored 850. Put her head on the desk and cried. After working with a tutor, taking several practice tests, and receiving her accommodations, she scored 1350. Her scores, while much improved, still don’t match her GPA and don’t reflect her abilities, in my opinion.

You didn’t mention anything about reading ability, which is the core aspect of dyslexia.

Does she think she has dyslexia or something else going on? As a rising college freshman, this should be her decision.

There are different forms of dyslexia. Mine is dysphonetic, which is an auditory processing disorder. We’re both very slow readers but she loves to read, thank goodness. I never read for pleasure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m her mom, I’m dyslexic, and I know her. She’s bright, analytical, focused, hard working, and extremely anxious. She often gets called out for not following verbal directions, missing important information during lectures, has trouble learning languages, and has slow processing speed. Her test anxiety is extreme. When she took the PSAT, she didn’t receive her accommodations by mistake and scored 850. Put her head on the desk and cried. After working with a tutor, taking several practice tests, and receiving her accommodations, she scored 1350. Her scores, while much improved, still don’t match her GPA and don’t reflect her abilities, in my opinion.

You didn’t mention anything about reading ability, which is the core aspect of dyslexia.

Does she think she has dyslexia or something else going on? As a rising college freshman, this should be her decision.

Yes, she thinks she’s dyslexic and nervous about college.