Is it possible to get a dyslexia assessment for an adult?

Mrs_P_Pincher

My OH is a very intelligent man (must be – he married me!) but he has horrendous problems reading and writing, which is why he left school at 15 without any qualifications and has always worked with his hands. When he was made redundant three years ago, he went to college and did an HNC in Photography, which he passed with distinction. I gave him a lot of support with the written part of his portfolio, checking, editing and typing from his dictation.

He has now decided that he would like to do a degree in Photography. To be fair his tutors wanted him to do this in the first place, but it’s taken him this long to come round to the idea. He’s doing his UCAS application at the moment.

He’ll be fine with the practical/technical aspects of a degree course, but as he can’t write down a telephone message or his own car reg on a hotel form, I don’t think he could manage to make notes in a lecture for instance and as his reading and writing skills do cause him problems in daily life, I think it would be a good idea to get him assessed so that he could tap into the resources available for disabled students. He was never assessed at school. He was one of the boys that they sent out to sweep the leaves up, instead of keeping them in lessons they couldn’t handle.

I don’t know how to go about it. Is this something we do through the GP, or the Dyslexia Association, or what?

Does anyone out there have experience of this?

Thanks

Mrs P P

Mojisola

I'd go through this site -
https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/adultchecklist.html

Once your OH has a diagnosis he will be able to get a lot of help at uni - if he chooses the right one. They still seem to vary a lot in the help they give disabled students.

Good luck to your OH. It's great that he's fighting back against the ill-treatment dyslexics get at many schools.

There is a support group in our area for adult dyslexics - try googling for your area. Sharing experiences and coping mechanisms can be very helpful.

Mrs_P_Pincher

That checklist is amazing. I'll get Mr P to do it himself, but I've just gone through it 'second guessing' his answers and they say 9 yeses is an indicator of a problem, but I hadn't answered all of the questions and was already up to 14!

Unfortunately he went to school in the days before dyslexia and its allied disorders were understood, but he's done all right so far and if he could get into uni and hang in there, it would be so good for him.

Fingers crossed and thanks again Moji for your advice.

Mrs PP

Mojisola

I'm really glad he's been okay - many people never quite recover from being undermined at school. Dyslexics aren't stupid - their brains just work differently.

Savvy_Sue

It's also worth talking to the disability support workers at the uni he's thinking of going to: they may be able to suggest where he should get an assessment done. But I'm sure it is possible.

DS1 has just had an assessment done at Uni because the 'evidence' we had for his Asperger's Syndrome was a touch antiquated. The deal was that if he didn't appear to need help, he'd have to pay for it, otherwise Uni would cover costs.

misty

If you have a look at the website of the Uni he is applying to there will be information about help available- they will assess him and his needs. It should be under Learning support or student services. They will be able to do a formal assessment once he has been given and accepted his place.

There are all kinds of help available now - and even if he isn't dyslexic he can still access this - this may include 1- 1 Learning support - to help him with his assignments, the use of a dictaphone in lecturers, in class support to take notes for him, the use of a laptop to aid the checking of spelling, a scribe in exams, extra time in exams and the use of coloured overlays.


There really is a lot of help available and he will be able access it and find what will support him the best. Even before he is offered a place - you could phone the institution up and have an informal chat about what help is available.

bertiebots

I just wanted to bump this thread because after reading the info on the web site link I suspect that I also have, if only mild, dyslexia. I scored high risk in the test and searched for more info. This lead me to find more information and I found I was reading what could have been a copy of my ds(11) school report...poor hand writing ,concentration ,not listening ,poor recording of info etc and he really is very bright (I know I am his mum but he is!!) he also has very poor motor skills ,pen holding , ball skills etc and is clumbsy,falls over a lot....possibly dyspraxia?? My dd (9) also is showing many signs with spelling and number work I simply hadnt realised ....I feel really guilty because it is so like them and I have been telling ds he must try harder ,I could never understand why he could never get what he knew to come out iykwim .I thought he just couldnt be bothered..... anyone know anything or have experiance about these conditions and is it hard to get them assessed at school .
I am going to talk to both schools asap.

blackeberg

Hi

There have been a few changes in what is deemed to be an acceptable standard of evidence for an adult assessment at university in the past year. I work in a Disabilities and Dyslexia Service and we've just put together a flowchart to try and show what is required - http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/londonmet/library/v87733_8.jpg. You might need to zoom in to see it properly.

In the case of someone that has never had an assessment before the requirement would be for a full report written by a chartered psychologist or a specialist teahcer who holds a PATOSS Practising Certificate. It's a bit of a Catch 22. If he waits until he starts the course then he can probably get most or all of the assessment cost paid for by the University's Access to Learning Fund (ALF). On the other hand if he pays to go private now (£250-450 with Dyslexia Action often being expensive) then he can apply for the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) and hopefully get most of the equipment and 1-1 study support in place by the start of the course.

The DSA application can take a few months which is why it might be worth going private for the initial dyslexia assessment. A university might agree to refund the cost once he enrols but that's very much down to individual policy.

Magpye

On a similar (sort of) topic, can anyone recommend a source for testing for dyscalculia? I have long suspected I have some sort of formal problem with numeric skills, but have only just learned that there is a recognised LD which covers many of the problems I have. TY very much anyone who can help!

blackeberg

I don't think that there's a fully recognised test for adults yet but a team at Loughborough University have been undertaking research into this area. You might find some useful links on their website and I know that they're working on some sort of screening software called Dyscalculium.

http://ddig.lboro.ac.uk/index.html