What’s the Value of a Formal Assessment?

Depending on your situation a formal psychological assessment of your child may or may not be worth the money.  You need to first decide what you expect to gain from an assessment.

Here are the things that come to mind for me:

1. You know something at school is not working for your child (poor school performance, anxiety, attention issues, frustration with learning, difficulty learning to read, behaviour issues – usually caused by frustration and anger, etc.) but you need help to identify the issue.
2. Having a clearly identified diagnosis will allow you access to accommodations, an IEP (independent education plan), in class support from an education assistant, access to specialized instruction, access to funding for external resources, etc.
3. A professional diagnosis will allow you to advocate more effectively for your child’s needs in the classroom.

A psychological assessment and formal diagnosis can be a very useful tool.  It also has a steep price tag attached to it.  In our area it is approximately $2,200 – $2,500 CDN for an assessment.  Before making that type of investment, you need to be clear about what you expect the diagnosis to do for you and your child.  In our local school board, some assessments are paid for by the school board, but in order to have fair access to assessments between schools, each school has a limited number of paid assessments available in a given year.  I know of parents who have waited over two years before getting a funded formal assessment for their child.  That is a lot of lost opportunity in the classroom, and a lot of frustration and negative school experiences for your child.  Not everyone can afford the assessment, but if you believe your child has a learning issue you should definitely seriously look at getting a formal assessment done sooner rather than later.  Many parents work at home with their children after school and have a good understanding of the learning challenges their child faces.  Unfortunately, in most situations they will need a formal assessment before they can get access to additional resources, support, or accommodations in the classroom.  Some benefit plans will cover at least part of the cost of the assessment, so talk to your insurance provider.

Dyslexia is very much a hidden disability for those who are not familiar with its signs.  People with dyslexia are very good at compensating for their challenges, and can easily fall through the cracks in the education system and “get by”.  It is sometimes difficult for teachers to understand that a child who is otherwise bright and eager to learn could get very low marks on tests, or have difficulty concentrating, or take much longer than their peers to complete work.  Dyslexics are identified in the classroom, but they are most likely to be identified as not trying, lazy, or not living up to potential.  A formal psychological assessment and diagnosis will be a huge help to both them and to you as a parent.  It will give you a clear basis for advocating for appropriate instruction and accommodations for your child in the classroom.  It will also help your child understand that they are not “stupid”, that there is a real reason why they struggle with certain skills.

There are also reasons to not get a formal assessment and diagnosis.  Like any parent working one-on-one with their child everyday, homeschoolers will often have a good understanding of the challenges their child is having.  Also, being at home they are not dealing with calls from the school about behaviour or attention issues which can be emotionally difficult for both the parent and child.  A formal diagnosis is not needed for accommodations or an IEP since the parent can control those factors.  The only reason they may want a diagnosis is to help identify the problem, or if a diagnosis will unlock funding or access to specialized instruction.   At this time, I am not aware of any government funding in Ontario for specialized instruction for dyslexia, or any programs that have limited access to those with a formal diagnosis only.  So in short, if you homeschool and feel that you understand what isn’t working for your child (i.e. has difficulty learning to read,  attention issues, frustration with learning, math facts just don’t make sense or don’t ‘stick’, etc.) then I don’t think you will gain much by getting a formal diagnosis.  Your money is better spent on resources to help you learn about dyslexia, how to teach your child more effectively, and to better understand why they are facing the challenges they are dealing with and how you can help.

We did not get formal assessments for our children.  We homeschooled, and the issues were clear.  Instead we spent that money for me to take training courses so I was able to learn how to teach them more effectively, and on curricula that was a better fit for how they learned best.  Once our eldest became an adult, we had her formally assessed for two reasons.  First, she was going to University and we wanted her to be able to have access to accommodations should she need them, and second, since she was assessed as an adult that assessment will be valid for any accommodations she may need in the workplace.  She has needed to use very few of the accommodations available to her, but the most valuable has been having access to a word processor during exams. This allows her to write faster and more importantly, use a spellchecker.  It was well worth the cost of the assessment to ensure that her post-secondary education wasn’t hindered by her dyslexia.

A formal assessment and diagnosis is a tool to help you in supporting and advocating for your child.  It is a significant financial investment, so before you start down that path, make sure you clearly understand what it will and will not do for you depending on your learning environment.  If you homeschool, it may not be a high priority for you relative to other options, provided you have a clear understanding of your child’s challenges.  If your child is in the school system and you suspect some type of learning challenge or even if something is “off” (their marks don’t reflect their knowledge and ability . . . remember ‘lazy’ should be a loud alarm bell), I strongly recommend that you look in to having a formal assessment completed.  It may save both you and your child from years of frustration, aggravation, and missed learning opportunities.