Learning Disability Assessment Toronto
Do you wonder if a young person who is struggling to learn at school and succeed academically would benefit from a learning disability assessment? Is he or she having difficulty coping with the academic program despite good effort to learn and succeed, and what appears to be good potential to learn and succeed academically. If so, you are not alone. Numerous young people suffer from a range of learning problems, from the relatively benign to the more severe.
It may be that the young person suffers from a Specific Learning Disability and would benefit from a learning disability assessment to explore her needs, as well as her strengths and how to help.
Dr. O'Connor, a Toronto psychologist, offers Psychological Assessment and Testing services to children, adolescents and young adults to help get to "the root" of the learning and/or academic problems they exhibit. Dr. O'Connor's Psychological Assessment and Testing Services reflect her post doctoral training in School Neuropsychology, and integrate a brain/behavior focus to assess the young person's functioning, including strengths and weaknesses across a range of neurocognitive domains.
Dr. O’Connor's Psychological Assessments increase understanding of the psychological concerns that surface in young people. They also reveal what is contributing to and maintaining these concerns, and lead to evidence based interventions to help. A Learning Disability Assessment is recommended when a young person who appears bright and generally shows good potential to learn, nevertheless shows some learning and academic struggle.
What Is a Learning Disability?
To meet the diagnosis for a Specific Learning Disability the young person must show indication of average intellectual functioning on a psycho-educational or psychological assessment. A statistical formula integrates the young person's average to above average intellectual functioning levels, with the neuropsychological and academic deficits and/or weaknesses he shows to determine whether a diagnosis of a learning disability applies.
Learning Disability Types
Learning Disabilities are associated with genetic and/or neurological factors that affect brain functioning. These can result in various weaknesses involving one or more of the neurocognitive processes associated with learning. These might include language difficulties, such as problems processing and comprehending language, or with verbal expression. These children may also have been slow to acquire basic language skills.
Other learning disabled children may show nonverbal learning difficulties on the learning disability assessment. These might include visual processing or discrimination weaknesses, or problems with visual spatial organization, or visual-motor tasks. They may have difficulty processing information in a timely and efficient manner. Executive function weaknesses, problems with memory, attention and focus may also be at issue. These neuropsychological processing concerns interfere with the acquisition of basic academic skills in reading, writing and/or math.
The academic skill levels of children with a learning disability, at least in some areas, typically fall below the norm and/or below expected levels based on their average to above average intellectual functioning levels.
A Learning Disability Assessment Can Help
Dr. O'Connor offers Psychological Assessments and School Neuropsychological Evaluations to help explore the young person's learning problems and to determine whether he or she meets the criteria for a Specific Learning Disability. Young people who have been diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disability by a registered psychologist, or other qualified psychological professional, and identified as an Exceptional Student are entitled to an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). This plan provides the young person with appropriate supports and accommodations to assist him with the school program. These might include more time to complete academic work, tests and exams, preferential seating and assistive technology (e.g., text to speech software and/or speech to text soft ware).
Dr. O'Connor's Psychological Assessments and School Neuropsychological Evaluations explore the domains required to determine whether the young person meets the diagnosis for a Specific Learning Disability. She gathers information from a variety of domains. This includes measures of sensori-motor functions, visual-spatial and auditory functions, learning and memory functions, executive functions, attention and fluency/processing speed functions. The young person's language and academic skills are also explored. The assessment results are then analyzed to determine the young person's needs, his strengths, his weaknesses and whether he meets the diagnosis for a learning disability.
This information will be integrated into a full and comprehensive psychological report. This report includes summaries of all test findings, including strengths and weaknesses, a diagnosis or diagnoses when appropriate, and interventions to address the learning and nueropsychological processing concerns that surfaced or were confirmed during the assessment.
Should the young person meet the criteria for a learning disability he will be deemed an exceptional student and entitled to receive supports and accommodations withing the school setting.
Learn more about Dr. O'Connor's psychological assessments and school neuropsychological evaluations and how they can assist in determimg whether the young person you have concerns about meets the criteria a Specific Learning Disability.
Learn more about learning disabilities and a learning disability assessment.
Contact Dr. O'Connor about her Psychological Testing and Assessment Services