Helping students with dyslexia navigate assessment
Education is driven by a shared goal: helping students grow and thrive. Assessments play a vital role in this journey, providing insights into student strengths, needs and progress. However, for students with learning differences, such as dyslexia, these assessments can present unique challenges.
Here’s how your school community can ensure an inclusive assessment experience for all students.
The critical first step
The first step is becoming aware of each student’s needs, which calls in the importance of universal screening. Fortunately, there is growing public awareness and support for dyslexia screening; and it was one of the key recommendations from the 2022 Ontario Human Rights Commission Right to Read inquiry report.
Dyslexia Canada is an avid supporter of regular screening as early as kindergarten, noting that Alberta was the first province to implement universal screening, with others announcing plans to follow suit. More recently, British Columbia announced new funding designated for early screening and interventions for students with dyslexia. As Premier David Eby said in an article announcing the initiative, “By starting evidenced-based screening and interventions when kids are young, they can get extra help at a much earlier age, preventing them from needing more intensive supports when they get older.”
Understanding the impact of dyslexia on testing
Students with dyslexia may struggle in the testing environment, making it challenging to display their academic skills, which can erode their confidence and motivation. Some of the areas where they may struggle include:
- Time constraints and reading speed: The time-pressured nature of some tests disproportionately affects students with dyslexia, highlighting the mismatch between reading speed and cognitive ability. They may struggle to complete sections within the allotted time or sacrifice accuracy for speed.
- Complex text questions: The combination of decoding requirements, specialized vocabulary and high-level thinking demands can quickly overwhelm students with dyslexia. They may struggle to recognize words, sound out letters and read with accuracy.
- Anxiety and stress: This sense of urgency can lead to increased anxiety and decreased focus as they rush to complete the tests. They may miss critical information, and their angst can lead to feelings of defeat.
Understanding these barriers for students with dyslexia and adjusting for these needs is the first step among many in your school’s strategy to determine how to create a more inclusive and equitable testing environment.
Strategies for supporting students with dyslexia
There are strategies teachers can implement to remove barriers for students with dyslexia to show what they know in a testing environment:
- Extended time accommodations, allowing students to focus on the content rather than the clock so they can complete assessments without feeling rushed.
- Quiet, distraction-free environments, which can help students with dyslexia focus and maintain concentration.
- Assistive reading technologies, which allows students to listen to written text.
- Scribes or writing assistance, enabling students to express their thoughts without struggling with writing mechanics.
- Multiple-choice options, which reduce reading comprehension demands so they can demonstrate knowledge without decoding challenges.
- Oral exams, which leverage students' strengths in verbal communication with an alternative to written assessments.
- Frequent breaks, which can reduce cognitive fatigue by allowing students to recharge.
While these accommodations can benefit many students with dyslexia, it's essential to note that some tasks may be easier or harder to accommodate, and correct interpretation of resulting scores is required before making recommendations.
The importance of a team approach
Students with dyslexia are best served when surrounded by a team of professionals working together (side by side with families and caregivers). In a school community this holistic team may include:
- General educators, who provide classroom-focused measures for assessment and instruction in the overall context of the curriculum.
- Special educators, who collaborate with many others in the school, delivering assessment, intervention and progress monitoring.
- School psychologists, who focus on the screening and assessing part of the workflow in their daily activities.
- Reading specialists, who provide high-quality reading instruction, especially with struggling readers.
- Educational diagnosticians, who focus primarily on assessment, communicating regularly with all team members to ensure a focused support system.
- Speech-language pathologists who offer services from assessment to intervention, with insight into the connection between oral and written language.
The success of students with dyslexia hinges on a collective commitment to understanding and support, with assessment as the cornerstone of the process. By addressing dyslexia early with the right interventions, you can significantly impact a student’s educational journey, whether it’s in the daily classroom or during testing. Through proactive support, students can succeed in school – and life.
To learn more about dyslexia and access a host of resources, download Pearson’s Dyslexia Toolkit.