Dyslexia and Learning Difficulty Assessment for Children: A Parent's Guide

Key Takeaways

• Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that affects reading. It sits alongside dysgraphia (writing) and dyscalculia (maths) as one of the three most commonly recognised specific learning disorders in Australian children. Being “bright” and having dyslexia are not mutually exclusive — in fact, the mismatch between a child’s overall cognitive ability and their reading progress is often the pattern that first prompts a family to seek assessment.
• Suspecting dyslexia in your child is not a diagnosis. A proper assessment involves a cognitive test (usually the WISC-V), an academic achievement test (usually the WIAT-III), specific phonological processing measures, a developmental and educational history, and information from teachers. No single test on its own gives you the answer.
• The typical age at which dyslexia becomes clinically obvious in Australian children is around Year 2 or 3, when the gap between what other children in the class can do and what the child with dyslexia can do widens visibly. Assessment before Year 1 is usually premature; waiting past Year 5 without action often lets the difficulty compound.
• NSW public schools have processes for supporting children with learning difficulties, including targeted literacy intervention and formal learning adjustments. Access to these supports increasingly depends on whether the family has external assessment evidence, though the specific evidence required varies by school and by district.
• At Potentialz Unlimited in Bella Vista, formal cognitive and academic achievement assessment (WISC-V, WIAT-III, additional processing measures) is delivered by Dr Gurprit Ganda, our senior Clinical Psychologist. The role of our Registered Psychologists is to help families work out whether an assessment is the right next step, prepare children for what the day will look like, and pick up the therapy work that often follows a dyslexia finding — anxiety, self-esteem, and school avoidance are common companions of undiagnosed learning difficulties.
• Cost is a real factor. A cognitive-plus-achievement assessment is a substantial piece of clinical work and sits in the low-to-mid four figures in Australian private practice. Medicare rebates for cognitive and achievement assessment specifically are limited; NDIS funding is available for eligible participants where the assessment supports plan evidence.
• Early evidence-based intervention — structured literacy tuition, phonics-based reading programs, appropriate school accommodations — makes a measurable difference to long-term reading outcomes for children with dyslexia. Waiting for a child to “catch up on their own” is not usually the right strategy for a genuine specific learning disorder.
• If you are worried about your child’s reading, the most useful first step is often a phone conversation to clarify what you have already noticed, what the school has said, and what a next step might look like. Not every worried parent needs a formal assessment; but a conversation is almost always worth having.

---

Why This Post Exists

The families I speak with at Potentialz about learning difficulties usually arrive with some version of the same picture. A bright, funny, capable child. Reasonable teachers. A supportive home. And a growing sense that something is not quite tracking — that despite everyone doing what they are supposed to be doing, this child is not making the reading progress that other children in their class are making.

The worry has usually been building for a while. Sometimes it started in Kindergarten and got dismissed with “they’ll catch up”. Sometimes it started in Year 2 when the difference between children in the class became suddenly visible. Sometimes it did not surface until Year 4, when the school moved from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”, and a child who had been coping started to fall behind in every subject that depended on text.

By the time a family calls, they have often already done a lot. Reading at home every night. A tutor. Extra time on homework. Speech pathology, in some cases. Vision testing, in others. And they are trying to work out whether the next step is another round of the same, or whether something more thorough is warranted.

This post is my honest, plain-English guide to how to think about that question. When is it reasonable to suspect dyslexia or another specific learning difficulty. What a proper assessment actually looks like. What the results tell you and what they do not. What to do next once you have them. And where at Potentialz Unlimited each part of that pathway sits.

This article comes from the Registered Psychologists at Potentialz Unlimited in Bella Vista, whose clinical backgrounds include administering cognitive and functional assessments (WISC, WPPSI, WNV, BASC, Vineland, ABAS) and running Reading for Life Programs with young people, so learning-difficulty terrain is familiar ground. At Potentialz specifically, formal cognitive and achievement assessment is coordinated through Dr Ganda, our senior Clinical Psychologist — more on that shortly.

---

What Dyslexia Actually Is

The word “dyslexia” gets used in many different ways in general conversation, and it is worth being precise about the clinical meaning.

In current diagnostic language (DSM-5-TR), what most people call dyslexia is one presentation of “specific learning disorder with impairment in reading”. The diagnostic criteria include:

• Difficulty with word reading, reading rate, or reading comprehension that is significantly below what would be expected for the child’s age and cognitive ability.
• The difficulty has persisted for at least six months despite appropriate intervention.
• The difficulty is not better explained by intellectual disability, uncorrected visual or hearing impairment, another mental or neurological condition, psychosocial adversity, lack of exposure to the language of instruction, or inadequate educational instruction.
• The academic skills are substantially and quantifiably below age expectations, causing significant interference with academic performance, occupational performance, or activities of daily living.
• The difficulties began during school-age years (though may not fully manifest until later, when demands exceed limited capacities).

The current scientific understanding is that dyslexia is primarily a difficulty at the level of phonological processing — the ability to hear, hold in mind, and manipulate the sounds within spoken words. Children with dyslexia often have specific difficulty with phoneme awareness (understanding that spoken words are made up of individual sounds), phonological memory (holding sounds in mind while working with them), and rapid automatic naming (retrieving the sounds associated with letters and letter combinations quickly and reliably).

Because reading in English requires linking letter patterns to sounds — mapping written symbols onto the phonological system — a difficulty at the phonological level shows up as difficulty with reading. Word Reading is affected. Pseudoword Decoding — the ability to sound out unfamiliar or made-up letter combinations — is particularly affected, because it isolates the pure decoding skill from any visual memory of specific real words. Reading Fluency is affected. Spelling is affected. Reading Comprehension is often affected too, especially in longer or more complex text, because the sheer cognitive effort of decoding leaves less capacity for understanding.

Dyslexia is not:

• A vision problem. Some children with reading difficulties do have visual issues that should be checked. But dyslexia is not a visual problem — the letters do not “move around on the page” in most children with dyslexia. Vision testing is worth doing to rule out uncorrected visual issues, but it is not itself an assessment for dyslexia.
• A lack of effort. Children with dyslexia often work much harder at reading than their peers, for less result. The struggle is not a motivation issue.
• An intelligence issue. Children with dyslexia have the same range of cognitive abilities as any other group of children. Being intelligent is entirely compatible with having dyslexia.
• Something a child will simply “grow out of”. Without appropriate intervention, dyslexia persists into adulthood.

---

When to Suspect Dyslexia in a Child

The pattern of dyslexia often becomes clinically obvious in Year 2 or Year 3, but early signs can be visible earlier. Here are the things that most commonly bring families to my attention.

Kindergarten and Year 1 signs. Difficulty learning letter names and sounds. Difficulty with rhyming games and word play (recognising that “cat” and “bat” rhyme, or that “sun” starts with the same sound as “sock”). Confusion with letter reversals that persists longer than for peers. Family history of reading difficulties. Speech delays in the preschool years, particularly speech sound difficulties.

Year 2 and Year 3 signs. Reading well below the class average. Slow, laboured reading that does not become fluent. Guessing at words based on the first letter or context rather than decoding. Difficulty with unfamiliar words. Spelling that is markedly weaker than expected — especially for the vowel sounds within words. Avoiding reading. Meltdowns around homework that involve reading or writing.

Year 4 to Year 6 signs. Reading below year level. Reading that is technically accurate but very slow. Comprehension that suffers when reading independently but is much stronger when the child is listening to text being read aloud. Written work that is much weaker than the child’s spoken ideas. Fatigue after academic tasks. Anxiety about school, especially about being called on to read aloud. A growing gap between the child’s cognitive ability (evident in conversation) and their academic performance.

High school signs. A student who reads slowly and avoids extended reading. Difficulty with subjects that involve heavy reading loads (history, English literature). Spelling difficulties that persist despite years of instruction. Difficulty taking notes from lectures. Fatigue and burnout around study. Underachievement relative to obvious cognitive strength in conversation and non-reading domains.

Not all children with these signs have dyslexia. Some are dealing with other issues — ADHD (which can look like reading difficulty because attention problems make sustained reading hard), anxiety, sleep problems, language difficulties, or simply having missed enough explicit reading instruction that they need targeted teaching to catch up. The point of assessment is to work out what is actually going on, so that the response can be targeted.

---

What a Proper Dyslexia Assessment Actually Involves

A proper dyslexia assessment is not a single test. It is a synthesis of several components.

A detailed developmental and educational history. The assessing clinician will gather information about the child’s early development (speech, language, motor milestones), family history of reading difficulties, medical history (particularly any history of hearing issues or chronic ear infections that can affect early phonological development), and current school situation. School reports, previous assessments, and information from current teachers all feed in.

A cognitive assessment (WISC-V). The WISC-V measures the child’s cognitive ability across five index areas — Verbal Comprehension, Visual Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed. This gives the clinician a picture of the child’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, and provides the “ability” side of the ability–achievement comparison that anchors specific learning disorder diagnosis. The WISC-V also gives specific information about phonological processing (through subtests like Digit Span) and processing speed, both of which are commonly affected in dyslexia. I have written more about the WISC-V in WISC-V Child Cognitive Assessment Explained.

An academic achievement assessment (WIAT-III). The WIAT-III measures the child’s actual academic skills — Word Reading, Pseudoword Decoding, Reading Comprehension, Oral Reading Fluency, Spelling, Sentence Composition, Essay Composition, Numerical Operations, Math Problem Solving, Math Fluency, and Oral Language. For a dyslexia investigation, the reading and spelling subtests are the key evidence. I have written more about the WIAT-III in WIAT-III Academic Achievement Test: A Plain-English Guide for Parents and Adults.

Specific phonological processing measures (usually the CTOPP-2 or equivalent). The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Second Edition, measures phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid symbolic naming — the three core cognitive processes most consistently affected in dyslexia. Where dyslexia is the specific diagnostic question, phonological processing measures add important evidence.

Additional measures where indicated. Depending on the specific referral question, the assessment may also include behaviour rating scales (to rule in or out ADHD, anxiety, or other contributors), oral language measures (where language difficulties are suspected), or adaptive functioning measures (where broader developmental questions are in play).

Clinical interpretation. The assessing clinician then synthesises all of the above — the history, the cognitive profile, the achievement profile, the phonological processing profile, teacher and parent information, and observations from the assessment sessions themselves — into a clinical picture. Diagnosis is not a scoring exercise; it is a clinical judgement informed by all the evidence.

A written report and feedback session. The clinician produces a written report and meets with the family (and, where age-appropriate, the child) to walk through the findings, answer questions, and make specific recommendations for teaching, intervention, and school accommodations.

At Potentialz, this whole process is delivered by Dr Ganda. My role, before and after, is often on the therapy and family-support side — which I will come back to.

---

Age and Timing — When to Assess

One of the most common questions I get from families is: “Is my child too young for a formal assessment? Or is it too early to worry?”

The clinical answer depends on the specific situation, but here are the general guidelines.

Kindergarten and Year 1 (ages 5–6). Formal specific learning disorder diagnosis is generally premature at this age, because the child has not yet had sufficient exposure to reading instruction to demonstrate a stable difficulty. However, early screening for at-risk features — poor phonological awareness, difficulty with letter-sound knowledge, family history of dyslexia — is genuinely valuable and can support early literacy intervention that may reduce the eventual gap. If your Kindergarten or Year 1 child is showing red flags, a conversation with the school about early literacy support is often the right first step, alongside a discussion with a psychologist about whether formal assessment is warranted now or should be reviewed in six to twelve months.

Year 2 and Year 3 (ages 7–8). This is often the classic window for dyslexia identification. Children have had two or three years of reading instruction; typical progress patterns are well established; the gap between children with dyslexia and their peers is becoming visible. This is when many first formal assessments happen.

Year 4 to Year 6 (ages 9–11). Assessment at this age is still very much on-time — many children have been coping until Year 4 with strong verbal reasoning masking a decoding difficulty, and the demands of the curriculum from Year 4 onwards often reveal the pattern. Assessment now can support the transition into high school with appropriate accommodations in place.

Year 7 and later. Assessment is still valuable at this age, particularly in preparation for HSC provisions, tertiary access accommodations, or where a young person is beginning to name their own difficulties for the first time. But there is no denying that earlier assessment, with earlier intervention, tends to open more options.

Adults revisiting an unresolved question. It is never too late to seek an assessment. Adults with lifelong unassessed reading difficulties can benefit substantially from formal assessment — both practically (accommodations, workplace supports) and in terms of self-understanding. I have written more about adult cognitive assessment in WAIS Adult IQ and Cognitive Assessment in Bella Vista.

---

What Happens on the Day for a Child

Most parents want to know what the assessment day will actually look like for their child, so they can prepare them.

Length. A full cognitive-plus-achievement assessment for a child typically takes four to six hours of direct testing time, and is almost always split across two sessions to manage fatigue. For younger children, splitting across three shorter sessions may be preferable. For a school-age child, the sessions are usually scheduled in the morning when energy and attention are at their best.

Setting. The child will be in a quiet consulting room with the assessing clinician. A parent or carer typically waits nearby (in the waiting area or a nearby coffee shop) rather than being in the room during the testing — this is standard practice, because the standardisation of the tests depends on the child engaging directly with the clinician. Some clinicians will allow a parent in the room for a young or highly anxious child, at least at the start of the first session.

What the child does. The child will work through a series of tasks with the clinician. Some involve talking — defining words, answering general knowledge questions, explaining how two things are similar. Some involve doing — building block designs, completing visual puzzles, matching symbols to numbers as quickly as they can. Some involve reading — single words, then nonwords, then longer passages. Some involve writing — spelling words to dictation, writing sentences, writing a short essay on a given topic. Some involve maths — written calculation, word problems, quick single-digit facts.

How to prepare your child. Keep the framing simple, honest, and low-pressure. “You’re going to spend some time with a psychologist who helps kids and their parents understand how their brain learns best. There are no ‘right’ answers you have to get, and you don’t have to study for it. Some of the tasks will feel easy and some will feel tricky — that’s how the tests are designed. Just do your best.” Avoid framing that raises the stakes (“this is really important”, “make sure you concentrate”, “this will decide whether you get help”). Bring a snack and water for breaks. If your child is on ADHD medication, take it as usual — the assessment is more informative when the child is in their normal state.

What to expect at pick-up. Most children come out of the assessment session tired but not distressed. Some find it interesting; some find it hard work; a few find it stressful. The clinician will usually give the child brief, warm feedback (“you worked really hard today”) and reserve the substantive interpretation for the feedback session with the family later.

---

How to Read a Dyslexia Assessment Report

If you have already had an assessment done and you are looking at a report, here are the things worth paying attention to.

The referral question. The report should restate why the assessment was arranged. If it does not, ask.

The cognitive profile (WISC-V). Look at the five index scores — Verbal Comprehension, Visual Spatial, Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory, Processing Speed. In children with dyslexia, the common pattern is average or above-average scores on Verbal Comprehension and Fluid Reasoning (and often Visual Spatial), with weaker scores on Working Memory and/or Processing Speed. A very common dyslexia-consistent profile shows a big gap between strong reasoning indices and weaker working memory and processing speed. That specific pattern is often called a “learning disability profile” in clinical shorthand, though the label alone is not diagnostic.

The achievement profile (WIAT-III). Look at the reading and spelling subtests. In dyslexia, Word Reading and Pseudoword Decoding are typically reduced significantly below the child’s cognitive ability. Spelling is often even more affected. Reading Comprehension may be less affected in a child with strong verbal reasoning, but Oral Reading Fluency is usually reduced.

The phonological processing profile (CTOPP-2 or similar). Look at phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatic naming. In dyslexia, one or more of these is typically reduced.

The ability–achievement comparison. A good report will explicitly discuss the relationship between the child’s cognitive ability and their academic achievement. A significant discrepancy between overall cognitive ability and reading achievement, in the presence of specific phonological processing weaknesses, is the core evidence pattern for dyslexia.

The diagnostic conclusion and recommendations. The report should give a clear clinical conclusion (whether a specific learning disorder with impairment in reading is diagnosed, or whether the pattern falls short of diagnosis but warrants targeted support anyway) and specific recommendations for teaching, intervention, school accommodations, and follow-up.

The qualitative observations. A good report includes observations about the child’s engagement, effort, attention, anxiety, and behaviour during the assessment. These observations often add clinically important context.

If a report is short, generic, or purely numerical, you are entitled to ask for a fuller feedback conversation.

---

The Common Myths — Cleared Up

I hear the same myths about dyslexia from families most weeks.

“Dyslexia is when letters move around on the page.” This is a persistent popular myth. The core difficulty in dyslexia is at the level of phonological processing — hearing, holding, and manipulating the sounds within words — not at the level of visual perception. Some children with dyslexia do report visual discomfort with text (particularly with certain fonts, or when tired), but this is not the defining feature.

“If they were reading fine in Kindergarten they don’t have dyslexia.” Many children with dyslexia manage Kindergarten and Year 1 reasonably well because early reading tasks emphasise letter recognition and simple whole-word memory. The difficulty often becomes obvious later, when reading demands shift toward decoding unfamiliar words and reading longer connected text.

“My child reads at home okay, so it can’t be dyslexia.” Home reading is often a very different task than school reading. At home, a familiar adult reads with the child, helps with hard words, and picks material that matches the child’s interest. At school, the child is expected to read unfamiliar text independently. A child can appear to be reading fine at home and still have significant reading difficulties in the school context.

“Boys are naturally slower to read, so we should just wait.” There is a mild sex difference in average reading development in the early years, but it does not account for a persistent significant gap. Waiting on the basis of “he’s a boy, he’ll catch up” is one of the more common ways that dyslexia gets delayed into a much bigger problem.

“Assessment will label my child forever.” A clinical report belongs to the family. It is not automatically shared with anyone. Even when it is shared with the school, a specific learning disorder diagnosis is a description of a learning profile, not a life sentence — children with dyslexia who receive appropriate teaching go on to complete school, university, and successful careers.

“Dyslexia can’t be treated.” Dyslexia is a lifelong neurocognitive pattern, not a curable condition. But children with dyslexia can absolutely learn to read well, with appropriate evidence-based intervention. Structured literacy approaches — Orton-Gillingham-based, MSL (Multisensory Structured Language), Sounds-Write, and similar programs — have a strong evidence base for improving reading in children with dyslexia. The specific method matters less than that it is systematic, explicit, cumulative, and taught by someone trained to deliver it well.

“If it’s dyslexia, my child can never do a demanding academic path.” Not true. Children with dyslexia can and do complete university degrees and demanding professional careers. The pathway may involve additional supports, more time, and appropriate technology (audiobooks, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, extended exam time), but the outcomes are open.

---

What to Do After a Dyslexia Diagnosis

Once you have a report confirming dyslexia (or a specific learning disorder with impairment in reading), the practical question is what to do next.

Share the report with the school and request formal adjustments. Most NSW schools have processes for reviewing external assessment evidence and developing individual learning plans or formal adjustments. The report gives the school specific evidence to build on. Common adjustments include extra time on written tasks, reduced writing demands, access to audiobooks or text-to-speech technology, alternative assessment formats, and preferential seating.

Arrange targeted evidence-based literacy intervention. This is the single most important intervention for children with dyslexia. Structured literacy approaches (Orton-Gillingham-based, MSL, Sounds-Write, and similar) are systematic, explicit, cumulative programs that teach the letter-sound correspondences of English in an ordered sequence. Sydney has a number of specialist tutoring providers who deliver these programs, and some schools have in-house structured literacy teachers. Ask for recommendations from your assessment provider or your school’s learning support team.

Consider assistive technology. For older primary and high school students, assistive technology can substantially reduce the cognitive load of academic tasks. Text-to-speech (reading text aloud to the student) reduces the effort of accessing written material. Speech-to-text (converting spoken words to written text) reduces the effort of producing written work. Audiobooks make longer texts accessible. These are legitimate, evidence-based supports — not a shortcut.

Support the emotional side. By the time many children with dyslexia are assessed, they have accumulated significant anxiety, low self-esteem, and shame around reading and academic tasks. Some are showing school refusal, meltdowns around homework, or growing withdrawal. Therapy work — CBT and ACT for older children, emotion coaching for parents of younger children, and building a broader identity that is not centred on academic performance — often has a real role after diagnosis. This is work I do as a Registered Psychologist at Potentialz.

Reduce the emotional temperature at home around reading. Homework battles around reading are a common way that families reinforce a child’s association between reading and failure. Where possible, take some of the heat out — read aloud together, listen to audiobooks together, let the child see reading as pleasurable rather than only as a source of pressure. Save the explicit skills work for the tutor or the intervention program.

Keep an eye on siblings. Dyslexia has a strong genetic component. If one child in the family is confirmed, siblings are at higher risk. Watch for the early signs and act earlier if a younger sibling starts showing them.

Plan for the long term. For a child who is early in primary school, think ahead to what supports will be in place through high school and into HSC preparation. For a child in later primary, start thinking about high school transition. For a child in high school, start thinking about tertiary access. The report is a document that can support advocacy across many years — not just for immediate accommodations.

---

The Assessment Team at Potentialz — Who Does What

A quick clarifying note on how the team at Potentialz works.

Dr Gurprit Ganda is our senior Clinical Psychologist. Formal cognitive and academic achievement assessment (WISC-V, WAIS, WIAT-III), specific phonological processing measures, and the integration of these into a full learning-difficulty assessment for children and adults is her territory.

Sushama Sathe is a Registered Psychologist with two decades of experience, including EMDR, perinatal and grief work, and multicultural family work.

Our holistic counsellor and yoga therapist supports clients alongside the psychology team.

Our Practitioner in Therapeutic Play holds PTUK / PTSA accreditation and additional training in Synergetic Play, LEGO-Based Therapy, and Parent-Child Attachment Play. For children under 8, or for children who need play-based rather than talking-based therapy, our Practitioner in Therapeutic Play is often the primary clinician on the therapy side.

Our Registered Psychologists work with children (aged 8 and up), adolescents, young adults, and older adults using CBT, ACT, and Solution-Focused Therapy, with clinical backgrounds that include administering cognitive and functional assessments (WISC, WPPSI, WNV, BASC, Vineland, ABAS) and running Reading for Life Programs. They do not administer the formal WISC-V and WIAT-III assessments — those go to Dr Ganda. Their role in the dyslexia pathway is usually pre-assessment (helping families work out whether an assessment is warranted, and what specific question to bring to Dr Ganda), preparation (helping children understand what the day will look like), and post-assessment (therapy for anxiety, self-esteem, school-related distress, and family work around emotional regulation and homework battles).

If you are unsure who to see, reception can help triage. A brief phone conversation is usually more useful than trying to work it out from a website.

---

Cost, Wait Time, and Rebates — Honestly

I do not want to quote specific numbers that will become out of date within months. What I can do is give you the shape of the picture, and encourage you to check current specifics with reception when you enquire.

Cost. A full dyslexia assessment (WISC-V plus WIAT-III plus phonological processing measures plus report and feedback) is a significant piece of clinical work — usually eight to twelve hours of clinician time when all of the direct testing, scoring, interpretation, report writing, and feedback are counted. A ballpark for the total investment in Australian private practice is in the low-to-mid four figures, though this varies with the specific assessment plan.

Wait time. Wait times vary depending on clinician availability. At Potentialz, reception will give you an honest current figure when you enquire.

Medicare. Medicare rebates for cognitive and academic achievement assessment specifically are limited. The standard Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP) from a GP does not fund a full learning-difficulty assessment. Some specific item numbers may apply in certain circumstances — reception can walk you through what, if anything, applies. For therapy sessions with me as a Registered Psychologist (for the anxiety, self-esteem, and family work that often follows a dyslexia diagnosis), Medicare rebates are available with an MHCP from your GP.

NDIS. For eligible NDIS participants, assessment may be funded under capacity-building supports, particularly where the assessment is directly relevant to disability evidence or plan development. Self-managed and plan-managed participants generally have more flexibility here than NDIA-managed participants.

Private health insurance. Some private health insurance psychology extras cover a portion of psychological assessment; check with your insurer.

School-funded assessments. Occasionally a NSW school will contribute to or fund an assessment where they have specifically requested it. This is not the norm, but it is worth asking your school before you book.

I know none of this gives you a specific number. That is the honest answer. Reception will.

---

What About Public School Assessment Pathways?

Families often ask whether the NSW public school system can provide the assessment, avoiding private cost.

The short answer is: public schools do have some in-house assessment capacity through school counsellors (who are trained psychologists), but the availability of comprehensive dyslexia assessment through the public system varies dramatically by school, by district, and by the pressure on the counsellor’s workload. Some school counsellors will conduct a WISC-V and provide a brief report; others do not have the capacity to do so, or the wait time is very long. Formal specific-learning-disorder-quality assessments (with WISC-V plus WIAT-III plus phonological processing measures) are usually beyond the scope of what a public school counsellor can deliver.

If your family can access assessment through your school counsellor, it is worth exploring. If the school cannot offer this, or the wait time is prohibitive, private assessment is the alternative. Families who choose private assessment often do so because the wait is shorter, the report is more comprehensive, and the assessment is designed to support both school-based and non-school-based supports (specialist tutoring, HSC applications, tertiary applications, therapy).

For families in independent or Catholic schools, the situation varies by school — some have in-house learning support teams that can conduct assessments, others do not.

---

Common Family Scenarios — How They Usually Unfold

To make the pathway more concrete, here are three composite scenarios drawn from the kinds of conversations I have most weeks. None of these is a specific child; each is a pattern that repeats.

Scenario one: the Year 3 boy who was “just a bit behind”. A family comes in worried about their eight-year-old son. He is bright and funny at home, has plenty to say about anything he is interested in, and is well-liked at school. But his reading has never quite tracked with the class. Kindergarten and Year 1 were “a bit slow, but he’ll catch up”. Year 2 the school suggested extra reading at home, which the family did every night. Year 3 the gap became visible — the class is now reading chapter books together, and their son is stuck on picture books. The teacher is kind but has 27 other children. The family has been trying to work out whether to get a tutor or ask for something more formal. A conversation with me clarifies that a full cognitive-plus-achievement assessment is the right next step. Dr Ganda conducts the assessment across two sessions. The report shows average-to-above-average cognitive ability, with a specific gap in phonological processing and a reading achievement profile consistent with dyslexia. The family shares the report with the school, which formalises learning support and provides in-class accommodations. The family also engages a specialist structured literacy tutor for 40 minutes twice a week. Within a year, the boy’s reading has moved measurably closer to grade level, and — perhaps more importantly — he has stopped calling himself “stupid” every time homework comes out.

Scenario two: the bright Year 5 girl whose writing does not match her thinking. A family comes in about their ten-year-old daughter. She reads voraciously, has an extraordinary vocabulary for her age, and holds her own in adult conversation. But her school writing is startlingly weak — short, disorganised, riddled with spelling errors that the family cannot reconcile with the child they know. The girl has started to actively refuse writing tasks and is showing signs of anxiety around anything that requires her to put pen to paper. A conversation with me suggests that a full assessment is warranted — the mismatch between her oral language ability and her written output is exactly the pattern that a WISC-V-plus-WIAT-III can characterise. Dr Ganda conducts the assessment. The report shows a superior Verbal Comprehension Index alongside significantly weaker Written Expression scores — a profile consistent with specific learning disorder with impairment in written expression (dysgraphia). Recommendations include explicit teaching of writing, assistive technology (speech-to-text), formal school accommodations, and short-term therapy for the anxiety and self-esteem impact of the years of writing struggle. The therapy piece comes to me; we work on the anxiety together over eight sessions, and the family reports that the meltdowns around writing have largely stopped by session six.

Scenario three: the adult who has been quietly compensating for decades. A woman in her mid-forties makes an enquiry. She has a demanding professional role that involves substantial reading, and she has always found reading harder and slower than her colleagues seem to. She reads carefully — often re-reading paragraphs to make sure she has understood them — and has developed an elaborate system of underlining, highlighting, and note-taking that she has never questioned but that takes her twice as long as her peers to work through a document. Her spelling is terrible; she has always relied on autocorrect. School was fine academically overall, but she remembers reading being effortful in a way she does not think her sister experienced. Her daughter has just been assessed and diagnosed with dyslexia, and she wants to know whether the same pattern might explain her own longstanding experience. A conversation with reception connects her with Dr Ganda for a full cognitive and achievement assessment. The report confirms the pattern — a longstanding phonological processing weakness, with reading achievement significantly below what her cognitive profile predicts. The clinical picture is consistent with adult dyslexia. Practically, the diagnosis does not change her career, but it does change how she thinks about her own effort and skill. Some workplace adjustments (audio versions of long documents, text-to-speech software) reduce the daily cognitive load. The therapy piece is less about accommodation than about integration — releasing four decades of quietly held shame about a difficulty she now has a name for.

Each of these scenarios highlights the same core point. The assessment is not the end. It is a starting point that opens conversations, unlocks supports, and reframes the difficulty in a way that makes practical change possible.

---

A Word on Advocacy — For Parents

If your child is assessed and diagnosed with dyslexia, part of your role as a parent shifts into advocacy — advocacy with the school, advocacy in HSC and tertiary applications, and advocacy in helping your child hold onto a positive sense of themselves in the face of a struggle that other children in the class do not face.

A few things I have watched work well in families I have supported.

Learn the language. Understanding what “specific learning disorder”, “structured literacy”, “phonological processing”, and “individual learning plan” mean gives you a real seat at the table when talking to schools and other professionals.

Build a good relationship with the school’s learning support team. They are often overworked, underfunded, and juggling many students. A parent who is knowledgeable, warm, and specific about what their child needs is much easier to work with than a parent who is confrontational or generic. The learning support team wants your child to succeed; help them help you.

Document what has been agreed. After a meeting with the school, send a brief follow-up email summarising what was discussed and what has been agreed to. This creates a paper trail that supports continuity as teachers and support staff change over time.

Introduce your child to their own diagnosis in age-appropriate terms. Children benefit from understanding why reading is hard for them — it is not because they are less smart than their friends, it is because their brain processes sounds differently. There are age-appropriate books and resources that explain dyslexia to children. Understanding their own profile helps children develop self-advocacy skills over time.

Keep the identity broader than the difficulty. Your child is not “dyslexic” — they are a child who has dyslexia. Keep celebrating and investing in the other parts of who they are — the parts that dyslexia does not touch. Sport, art, music, humour, kindness, curiosity, friendships. A child whose identity is anchored beyond academic performance handles the academic difficulty more resiliently.

---

How Potentialz Can Help

If you have read this far and you have a genuine worry about your child’s reading, or a longstanding question about your own, you are welcome to reach out.

Because the formal WISC-V and WIAT-III assessment at Potentialz is Dr Ganda’s territory, the practical first step for a formal assessment enquiry is usually a phone conversation with reception, who will scope out the referral question, walk you through current cost, wait time, and rebate arrangements, and book you in with Dr Ganda where that is the right fit.

If your question is more general — “I’m not sure whether we need an assessment, or extra tutoring, or a conversation with the school first” — that is a conversation you can have with me first, and we can work out together whether an assessment is the right next step. Where it is, I will happily connect you with Dr Ganda in-house. Where therapy for the anxiety, self-esteem, or school-related distress that is often already in play is the better first step, we can do that piece together.

Our Registered Psychologists at Potentialz Unlimited in Bella Vista work with children (aged 8 and up), adolescents, young adults, and older adults, using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Solution-Focused Therapy, always grounded in a strong, non-judgemental therapeutic relationship.

Medicare rebates are available with a Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP) from your GP for therapy sessions. NDIS (self-managed and plan-managed) referrals are accepted. Formal cognitive and achievement assessment cost and rebate arrangements are separate and best confirmed at the point of enquiry.

• Address: Unit 608, 8 Elizabeth Macarthur Drive, Bella Vista NSW 2153
• Phone: 0410 261 838
• Book: live.potentialz.com.au
• Hours: Monday–Friday 10am–7pm | Saturday & after-hours available | Telehealth via phone or Zoom (for therapy; formal assessment is delivered in person)

You may also find these related posts useful: WIAT-III Academic Achievement Test: A Plain-English Guide, WISC-V Child Cognitive Assessment Explained, WAIS Adult IQ and Cognitive Assessment in Bella Vista, IQ Testing Near Me: What to Expect at Bella Vista, and Processing Speed and Working Memory Explained.

---

Related Reading

More from our blog:

• WIAT-III Academic Achievement Test: A Plain-English Guide for Parents and Adults
• Child Cognitive Assessment: Identifying the Hidden Blocks to Learning
• WISC-V Child Cognitive Assessment Explained: What It Measures and Why It Helps

Therapy services that may help:

• child psychologist Bella Vista
• IQ testing Bella Vista

---

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787

Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2019). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2003). A definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 53(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-003-0001-9

Mather, N., & Wendling, B. J. (2011). Essentials of dyslexia assessment and intervention. John Wiley & Sons.

Peterson, R. L., & Pennington, B. F. (2015). Developmental dyslexia. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 11, 283–307. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032814-112842

Sattler, J. M. (2018). Assessment of children: Cognitive foundations and applications (6th ed.). Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher.

Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2005). Dyslexia (specific reading disability). Biological Psychiatry, 57(11), 1301–1309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.043

Snowling, M. J., & Hulme, C. (2012). Interventions for children’s language and literacy difficulties. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 47(1), 27–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-6984.2011.00081.x

Snowling, M. J., Hulme, C., & Nation, K. (2020). Defining and understanding dyslexia: Past, present and future. Oxford Review of Education, 46(4), 501–513. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1765756

Vellutino, F. R., Fletcher, J. M., Snowling, M. J., & Scanlon, D. M. (2004). Specific reading disability (dyslexia): What have we learned in the past four decades? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(1), 2–40. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0021-9630.2003.00305.x

Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., Rashotte, C. A., & Pearson, N. A. (2013). Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing — Second Edition (CTOPP-2). Pro-Ed.

Wechsler, D. (2014). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Fifth Edition (WISC-V): Technical and interpretive manual. Pearson.

Weiss, L. G., Saklofske, D. H., Holdnack, J. A., & Prifitera, A. (Eds.). (2019). WISC-V: Clinical use and interpretation (2nd ed.). Academic Press.

---

Disclaimer

This article was prepared by a Registered Psychologist registered with AHPRA (Psychology Board of Australia). The information in this post is general in nature and does not constitute clinical advice for your particular situation. Please consult a qualified health professional for your individual circumstances. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, contact your GP, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or go to your nearest emergency department.

Crisis Resources

• Lifeline: 13 11 14 (24/7)
• Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636
• Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800
• MensLine Australia: 1300 78 99 78
• 13YARN (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis line): 13 92 76
• Emergency: 000