On the 3rd December 2024, I had a two-hour-long Specific Learning Difficulties online assessment, so I could get a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or dysgraphia. I was assessed for all of them because I went through my university to get a dyslexia diagnosis and instead I had a Specific Learning Difficulties assessment that allowed me to be assessed for all of them. After the assessment (which was actually funny in its own right because I was able to be diagnosed quicker than she expected), I was diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia. We’ll cover these two conditions in the next two podcast episodes. Yet as an aspiring clinical psychologist, I found the assessment process fascinating and I really enjoyed how she adapted her process, her thoughts and what her approach as she got more information and test results so she could make a diagnosis. I learnt a lot during the assessment. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll learn what happens during a Specific Learning Difficulties assessment, how I got the assessment in the first place and what I learnt as an aspiring clinical psychologist. If you enjoy learning about mental health conditions, psychological assessments and applied clinical psychology then this will be a great episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental and Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Why Did I Want A Dyslexia Assessment In The First Place?
As a quick note to start off this episode, I want to mention that the difference between a learning disability and a learning difficulty is that to have a learning disability your IQ has to be below 70 points. You have dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or dysgraphia but it doesn’t mean you have a learning disability. Especially if you’re IQ is above 70.
I have always suspected that I am dyslexic because my ability to read new words has always been awful. I have always struggled with sounding out words, learning new words and understanding how to say words. It doesn’t matter if they’re English, Spanish, French, whatever language. I always struggle to say them because I don’t know how sounds work in words so unless I know what the entire word sounds like, I always add and subtract random letters that make no sense.
However, this academic year because I’ve been living with housemates and words have come up as well as my ability to read them has been mentioned. I quickly became the joke in the house that I cannot pronounce words at all, my sense of direction is awful and my sense of left and right is troubling too at times. Therefore, I looked into it more and I did fit the criteria for dyslexia as well as dyspraxia. Yet I was resistant to getting diagnosed for a while because I’ve been through secondary education, my undergraduate degree and I am basically done with my Masters now. I didn’t really see the point of being diagnosed and it doesn’t impact my life massively.
I can still read, write and learn to a good level, so I was resistant.
Also, I had a dyslexia screening back in Year 8 so when I was around 14 years old, and that screening “showed” I didn’t have dyslexia so I didn’t really want to go through the whole process again.
However, I was working an information evening at a college in Canterbury for my student ambassador work with my best friend and a girl that I always enjoy talking. We were talking and my ability to say new words popped up again and we were all joking about how bad I am at saying words, reading words and that sort of thing. Then I joked that I should do a dyslexia screening online (because that’s always accurate) so I did one then another then I realised the answers both said it was likely I was dyslexic.
Afterwards, I didn’t really think about it for another day then I looked up what my university offers in terms of specific learning difficulties. I found out that offer diagnosis and screening tests. Now the thing you need to know about me is that I love a freebie, you should also know that even though a lot of my childhood and sexual trauma has been dealt with, I like surviving. And getting a diagnosis might help me to survive and make my life easier in the future.
Sometimes you do need to use childhood trauma to manipulate yourself so you don’t miss very good opportunities like this one.
I emailed my university asking for the screening, so they sent it to me and I did it later that night. I thought it was going to be a silly little quick thing. 90 minutes later I finally got my results and the screening test suggested that I had a mild form of dyslexia and the next day my university emailed me. I had to pay £175 for the dyslexia assessment and they covered the rest which was at least £200. If you’re undergraduate and you have a household income under a certain amount then you don’t need to pay, but because I’m postgraduate I had to pay for it.
I wasn’t entirely happy about that, but I wanted this diagnosis.
I booked the assessment for 3 until 5 pm on 3rd December 2024.
Once that was firmed I did the pre-screening questionnaire that asked me a lot of questions that covered different areas of dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia, and I sent it off.
What Happens During A Specific Learning Difficulties Assessment?
I have to mention the funny thing leading up to the assessment was that the company my university uses loves to send reminders. Every day at 3 pm for the 3 days leading up to my assessment, I got a daily text message reminding me about my assessment. Then on the day itself, I get a text message an hour before the assessment and 15 minutes before I get a text reminding me to get set up.
For an online Specific Learning Difficulties assessment, in my experience, you will need:
· Laptop or computer (you CANNOT use your phone)
· Lined paper and a pen
· A quiet space
If you don’t have any of these requirements then the assessment will be cancelled and you or your university will be charged a fee. My university would have been charged £75 as a consequence of me not meeting these requirements.
At 3 pm the woman who was doing my assessment popped into the Zoom call, and at first, I’ll admit I wasn’t sure how friendly she was going to be. She didn’t really do any small talk or really ask how I was or how my day had been. I might have preferred something to make her seem less intimidating, because ultimately as a client, I know she has the power to give or deny me a diagnosis. For this reason, I was relatively tense for the first 30 minutes into the assessment and I didn’t really offer up or think about any additional supporting information until after that point.
Therefore, as an aspiring clinical psychologist, ideally I would like to spend 5 minutes just talking to the client first. This would allow me to build a little bit of a rapport, they could see me as a relatable person and this could decrease some of the power differential between me and the client.
Of course, I know she might not have done this because of time and she is probably under pressure to get through assessments as quickly as possible so she can do more, write up their reports and keep her bosses happy. That is all just a guess but it is how mental health services work, even private works probably work like that to some extent.
Anyway, she introduced the assessment that she is going to be assessing me for dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia and/ or dysgraphia. We’re going to do some psychometric tests, talk a little about my history and she explained how breaks work because it is a lot to ask someone to sit in front of a computer for 2 hours. Even though the funny thing was that she specifically highlighted the fact that these assessments tend to go on for 2 hours but they can go over if needed.
Next we started the assessment itself.
Firstly, she asked me what I was hoping to get out of the assessment and diagnosis. I explained how I’ve struggled with words, sounding out words and that I was a joke in my friend groups because of it in a banter-y way and that a diagnosis would allow me to be able to explain why I struggle to say, read and pronounce words.
Secondly, we started doing about a range of different tests on the laptop. Originally, I could only remember 4 of these tests but as I wrote this podcast episode, I remembered more and more of them. I don’t entirely remember the order but I think we started with a “number sequencing” test. You’ll see in the next two podcast episodes but people with dyslexia struggle with sequencing numbers because of my working memory difficulties. Therefore, she said sequences of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and maybe 7 numbers then I needed to repeat the numbers as she said them. Afterwards we did the same but I needed to say them in the reverse order. For example, if she said 4, 5, 6, 7 then I needed to say 7, 6, 5 and 4. Personally, I think she stopped the reverse order sequencing earlier because I was so bad at it and I don’t think I managed to get past 4 or 5.
That told her that I struggled with sequencing and indicated possible issues with my working memory.
The second test was a pattern or shape manipulation task. I thought I was going to flat out hate this task because the dyslexia screening version I did two weeks before was so bad and so awful I definitely failed that. Yet the version used in the assessment was relatively “easy”. It was timed so I wouldn’t have been surprised if I spent slightly “too long” compared to people without a Specific Learning Difficulty trying to figure out how the shapes fit together. The specific task was that on the screen there was a big shape then below you had different shapes that could fit together to create the big shape, and each smaller shape had a number. You needed to say the number of the shapes aloud as your answer.
I only made one or two mistakes there but I am not sure what that told her.
The third task was horrific and this must have screamed dyslexia at the woman. The first set of words were real words that I needed to read out. There must have been about 20 to 30 words that increased in difficulty, so I read them out and managed all of them in the end. This was a timed test and then we switched to nonsense words. However, the words were made up of sounds that should have been easy to put together so you knew how to pronounce these fake words. I might have made it to the 6th or 9th word and she could see how badly I was struggling and how I just wasn’t able to say these sounds and she basically stopped the test.
If I was struggling to put together “easy” sounds then I don’t think she needed any more information that she would have gotten from the “harder” sounds. That was so painful for me.
In addition, there was a letter-based task where I needed to say letters that were on the screen, because dyslexia can cause people to mix up certain letters. I later told her that I have an issue with letters that I cannot say letters without tracing them in the air or writing them, that I think only confirmed her suspicions about me being dyslexic. Yet this is a great lesson in the importance of making sure a client is comfortable with you and you have a rapport so they open up to you about things that you haven’t asked but could be relevant to the diagnosis.
Afterwards, we did do two final tests but she wanted to talk to me first.
How Did The Dyspraxia Conversation Go?
This was a very valuable moment for me as an aspiring clinical psychologist because after the word task, I saw how interested the woman got in me. Me failing the word task clearly meant something to her, and judging by the conversation she was sure she was close to being able to make a diagnosis of something but first, she needed some extra information.
Personally, it was seeing her get excited and she had a sort of “detective look” in her eyes. Like I was a case that she wanted to help and solve, so she could give me some peace about what specific learning difficulty I had. Then this would allow me to get the support I needed.
As a result, she started talking to me about my gross motor skills because I had mentioned a lot of difficulties with throwing, catching and hand-eye coordination in the pre-screening questionnaire. She got me to talk about the extra lessons I needed to have as a child because I was so bad at throwing and catching. Also I spoke about my amazingly bad and rather shocking sense of direction, inability to read maps and even the sat-nav I find difficult at times.
Me finding the sat-nav difficult seriously isn’t funny because I have added an hour extra onto journeys before. All because I missed a single turning and it was an awful junction that took me a while to drive back to, then I missed it again because of my inability to read a sat-nav. In all fairness, the sat-nav’s description of this junction isn’t ideal, but if I had simply read the signs (remember reading is difficult) then I would have been fine.
Although, I have to admit that one thing I did disagree with her on but I didn’t openly challenge her because I wanted a dyspraxia diagnosis and even though this single piece of information wouldn’t have changed anything with all the other overwhelming evidence. She did imply that dyspraxia impacted my driving ability and that’s why I failed four times. In all fairness because I’ve written a podcast episode on dyspraxia now, I don’t disagree with her assumption, but at the time of the assessment I did.
After I revealed all that information to her, she nodded her head as if everything must have clicked into place, and then she said to me “you do meet the criteria for a dyspraxia diagnosis, if you think that would be useful to you,”. I was never going to argue against a dyspraxia diagnosis because that is the condition I think best fits me anyway so I was very happy to receive that diagnosis.
Next she wanted to talk about dyslexia because she wasn’t entirely sure that I only had dyspraxia or if I had dyslexia as well. Since dyspraxia explained a good chunk of my history and symptoms but not all of them.
Leading us onto the final task that was always going to happen anyway.
Spelling, Reading Comprehension and Writing Test In A Specific Learning Difficulties Assessment
The first of the final three tests that we did was spelling. I knew I was going to fail this badly but what happened was, on my lined paper I wrote down how I thought words were spelt. She would read out a word and I would write it. The following were the words she asked me to write, and for our audio listeners, if you look at the blog post I’ve written out the correct spelling first then I explained how I wrote it next.
· Beautiful- beautiful
· Chaos- choas
· Calves- Calaves
· Whining- Whinning
· Inoculate- Inknowculate
· Aerobic- Aeorobic
· Circumference- circumference
· Quay- quay
· Installation- Instation
· Pheonix- Phoneix
· Salmonella- Samella
· Rhythm- rymthm
Audio listeners, please go and look at the blog post, you will have a good laugh at my awful spelling.
Furthermore, as a result of dyslexia making it difficult for some people to remember information and understand what a text says, you need to do a reading comprehension test. For example, one of my lecturers he needs to read and reread an essay at least five times to remember what’s going on. And often by the time he has reached the end of the essay, he has well and truly forgotten what happened at the beginning.
For my specific learning difficulties assessment, I had to read three different extracts that were getting more and more complex as we went on. This was a timed, silent reading activity so I needed to tell the woman when I started reading and when I had finished reading. Also, instead of doing my normal “trick” of if I didn’t know a word I simply looked at it, didn’t read it and skipped it. I did honestly try to read it so I could show a more realistic reading time to the woman.
Next she asked me questions about the extract after she flicked to another screen. Personally, because I have a good working memory and good reading comprehension the questions weren’t hard for me, but they might be for other people with dyslexia. As well as I did struggle with questions about place names and answers that involved words I didn’t know how to say. Again, I suppose this was further support for my lacking an ability to say words, but evidence showing I can read okay.
Even though you could argue the lack is evidence “against” dyslexia, actually I think it’s better to argue that it helps you make more correct recommendations for the support that I get in the future.
The final test that we did was a writing task because I had 10 minutes to write as much as I could on my lined paper about a particular topic. I did the advantages and disadvantages of mental health labels and I had one minute to prepare my answer. I wrote for 10 minutes then I needed to take photos and upload them to the weblink that she sent me. She spent five minutes reviewing them and the first thing she said when she came back was something along the lines of “I could read most of it but has anyone ever mentioned your handwriting to you,”
Now I like to say that I have doctor handwriting meaning I am very smart but you can’t read it. In all fairness, the majority of people can read my handwriting but it can be hard at times. I said “yes, I have never met a person who hasn’t mentioned my handwriting”. Of course, she had checked my writing for spelling, grammar and punctuation. She didn’t tell me those results but I know I had made a good few mistakes because I didn’t know how to say certain words, and she mentioned a sign of dyslexia is avoiding certain words too. That I confessed to, I do that all the time.
Following this, she wanted to talk to me about my fine motor skills because dysgraphia is basically the opposite of dyspraxia and you can have both. Dyspraxia focuses on gross motor skills whereas dysgraphia is all about fine motor skills. We spoke for a little bit about that because dysgraphia does impact handwriting but as soon as I mentioned how I can write 2,700 words an hour through typing she dismissed that diagnosis because it shows my fine motor skills are fine. Therefore, she gave me the dyslexia diagnosis because it explained my difficulties with sounds, reading and pronunciation as well as it explained my bad handwriting too.
I was very happy to finally have that diagnosis.
However, you might remember that earlier I mentioned how these assessments typically last two hours and they rarely finish before that. My entire assessment only took 85 minutes because I suspect my symptoms were that clear and I knew what to say about my life to help you make an informed diagnosis. I just found it funny how I managed to knock off 25% of the assessment timewise because my symptoms were that obvious.
What Happens After a Specific Learning Difficulties Assessment?
In my experience, what happens after a specific learning difficulties assessment is that the psychologist or whoever did your assessment will write up a full report and send it to you and your university (or whoever you did it through) within 14 days. This will be a very detailed and thorough report that will go through all the different elements of the assessment, what parts of the condition you meet and all the different ways how you might need additional support in the future.
After you and your university have both got the report, your university will schedule a meeting with you to discuss what accommodations you need. For example, when I get the report in the next two days, I’ll be assigned and meet with a “Learning Disability Advisor” (yes, I flat out hate the name) so we can create an Inclusive Learning Plan that will help me get accommodations. I don’t really need them but it’s an interesting idea.
I know some of the accommodations we spoke about include:
· Extra time in exams
· I cannot be marked down in presentations for taking a moment longer to think before answering.
· There were others but I forgot.
Clinical Psychology Conclusion
Whilst the diagnosis I really want is an autism diagnosis because that will help me tons, I am really happy to receive my dyslexia and dyspraxia diagnoses. Since I have struggled so much with reading, pronunciation and speaking in my life that I am so happy that I am finally able to say and show other people that there is a real reason why I struggle with these areas and it isn’t because I’m “thick” like some people suggest.
On the other hand, as an aspiring clinical psychologist, I have learnt three main things from this assessment. Firstly, I have learnt that if there is time, I will always try and spend a few minutes just talking to the other person I am assessing so they are more comfortable, they know I am a friendly face and I can try to decrease some of that natural power differential that exists in this situation. I think it would have been nicer and me and my assessor would have revealed more to each other a lot sooner if we had simply taken a few moments to talk beforehand.
Secondly, I have learnt how much I want to do assessments in the future. I know I would because it’s just a part of clinical work. Yet seeing that detective look and sheer sense of curiosity in my assessor’s eyes has made me excited for the future. I want to meet clients, be curious and I want to be a detective as I try to find a diagnosis that matches and explains as many of their symptoms as possible. Of course, in an ideal world, I wouldn’t need to rely on the DSM-5 and I know after the assessment process barely any modern clinical psychologists actually use the diagnosis label because then it becomes all about the client and formulation thankfully.
I am still excited though to effectively be a detective to help a client.
Finally, I have learnt that I really am excited about continuing my clinical psychology journey. Sometimes there are moments that I consider whether I have the excitement, passion and interest to actually go all the way to become a clinical psychologist then I do something and something happens in my personal life and I realise I truly am. I actually had to be a bit of a detective the other day on the phone with a friend as I tried to work out what therapy option would be best for another friend. That was a fun conversation but that’s beyond the scope of this episode.
Ultimately, I have these diagnoses, I now know what it’s like to undergo a psychological assessment and I realise I seriously do have the passion to have a career in clinical psychology. I couldn’t ask for a better and more useful assessment, so if you’re thinking about undergoing a Specific Learning Difficulties assessment because you think you might have dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or dysgraphia, I would say go for it. Nothing bad can happen. The worst outcome could be you don’t meet any criteria but given how you would have done a screening beforehand, the chance of that is unlikely.
If you’re an aspiring or qualified clinical psychologist, I would say enjoy psychological assessments. They seem fun, interesting and of course, they will lose their charm over time as you do them every week, but just remember that each assessment is a chance to transform someone’s life. And ultimately, you’re potentially giving them a tool to let them access specific services, support and coping mechanisms that will help them improve their life and decrease their psychological distress.
There’s certainly nothing better than that for a clinical psychologist.
I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Developmental Psychology: A Guide To Developmental and Child Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Clinical Psychology Further Reading
Benavides-Varela, S., Callegher, C. Z., Fagiolini, B., Leo, I., Altoè, G., & Lucangeli, D. (2020). Effectiveness of digital-based interventions for children with mathematical learning difficulties: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 157, 103953.
Graham, C. (2020). Can we measure the impact? An evaluation of one-to-one support for students with specific learning difficulties. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 22(2), 122-134.
Kormos, J., & Smith, A. M. (2023). Teaching languages to students with specific learning differences (Vol. 18). Channel View Publications.
Lombardi, E., Traficante, D., Bettoni, R., Offredi, I., Vernice, M., & Sarti, D. (2021). Comparison on well-being, engagement and perceived school climate in secondary school students with learning difficulties and specific learning disorders: An exploratory study. Behavioral Sciences, 11(7), 103.
Prior, M. (2022). Understanding specific learning difficulties. Psychology Press.
Sewell, A. (2022). Understanding and supporting learners with specific learning difficulties from a neurodiversity perspective: A narrative synthesis. British Journal of Special Education, 49(4), 539-560.
Wotherspoon, J., Whittingham, K., Sheffield, J., & Boyd, R. N. (2023). Cognition and learning difficulties in a representative sample of school-aged children with cerebral palsy. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 138, 104504.
Zolfi, V., Hosseininasab, P. D., & Azmoudeh, P. D. (2022). The Effectiveness of Training in Cognitive-Metacognitive Strategies upon the Cognitive Load and Working Memory of Elementary School Students with Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading. Quarterly Journal of Education, 38(3), 37-50.
I truly hope that you’ve enjoyed this blog post and if you feel like supporting the blog on an ongoing basis and get lots of rewards, then please head to my Patreon page.
However, if want to show one-time support and appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal. If you do that, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
Click https://www.buymeacoffee.com/connorwhiteley for a one-time bit of support.
Commentaires