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 may include language difficulties, such as problems processing and comprehending language, or with verbal expression, as well as difficulty acquiring basic language skills.
Other learning disabled children may show nonverbal learning difficulties on the learning disability assessment, such as visual processing or discrimination weaknesses, problems with visual spatial organization, and with 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 successful acquisition of basic academic skills in reading, writing and/or math, and can contribute to difficulties across all subject areas and knowledge domains.
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 who are 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, and interventions to teach specific skills.
Accommodations 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 comprehensive, in depth Psychological and School Neuropsychological Assessments explore a range of neuropsychological domains to determine whether the young person meets the diagnosis for a Specific Learning Disability. These domains include:
- Sensorimotor Functions
- Auditory/phonological processing skills
- Visual processing/spatial skills
- Memory & Learning skills
- Executive Functions
- Attention Skills
- Processing & Fluency Issues
Dr. O'Connor's Psychological and School Neuropychological Assessments also explore the young person's intellectual functioning levels, his or her language skills and academic functioning levels. Social, emotional and behavioral concerns are also addressed. Dr. O'Connor gathers and analyzes information from these various domains and areas of functioning to determine the young person's needs, his or her strengths and weaknesses and whether he or she meets the diagnosis for a learning disability.
Dr. O'Connor integrates the information gleaned through the assessment into a detailed, comprehensive psychological report. This report includes summaries of all test findings, including the young persons strengths and weaknesses, a diagnosis or diagnoses when appropriate, and evidence based interventions to address the learning/neuropsychological processing concerns that surfaced or were confirmed during the assessment.
If the assessment findings confirm that the young person meets the criteria for a learning disability, and the school supports this designation, the child is deemed an exceptional student. He or she is then entitled to receive academic accommodations and/or evidence based interventions to address his or her specific needs.