To top

NOTICE: We cannot currently offer Educational Psychology services. We can provide - Cognitive Assessments, SpLD Assessments, and Dyslexia Assessments.

Literacy assessments

A literacy assessment provides a profile of a child or young person’s strengths and difficulties in relation to literacy. A literacy assessment provides an understanding of needs through controlled assessments.

Who is suitable for a literacy assessment?

Literacy assessments are suitable for children and young people up to 25 years old. Children and young people who have difficulties or delays in any of the following could benefit from a literacy assessment:

To find out more about literacy assessments please contact us to talk to a member of our team.

Literacy assessment

A psychologist carrying out a literacy assessment



What are the benefits of a literacy assessment?

Literacy assessments bring many benefits to children, young people, parents, carers and professionals as they:

Individual recommendations can be made to support a child or young person’s identified needs following a literacy assessment.

What happens prior to a literacy assessment?

A literacy assessment can be carried out following an initial discussion, please see our process below.

Our process

At HSR Psychology we ensure that we meet the needs of children and young people. To achieve this we ensure that any specific assessments, intervention, or direct work, is only carried out following an initial discussion.

An initial discussion allows us to understand the background and your expectations of our involvement. Having an initial discussion ensures any services we provide appropriately identify or address needs.

Our process for any specific assessments, intervention, or direct work is as follows:

Step 1: Contact us

We will usually be contacted by the child or young person, parent or carer, or another professional (eg education or health).

You can contact us or complete a referral



Step 2: Arrange an initial discussion

An initial discussion allows us to understand the background and your expectations of our involvement. Arrange an initial discussion



Step 3: Review our recommendations

Following an initial discussion we will send you an email that includes:

  • Next steps recommendations - to provide a bespoke package of support. For example:
    • Assessments
    • Reports
    • Information gathering
    • Meeting
    • Interventions
    • Consultancy
    • Reviews
  • Costing - we will provide costings for any services recommended.


Step 4: Let's get started

On receipt of the next steps recommendations and costing you can decide how to proceed. Once you have decided contact us to arrange the chosen services.



What happens during a literacy assessment?

A literacy assessment can take place within an education setting, one of our clinics, a home or community setting. The assessment would take place within a quiet environment, ideally free from avoidable distractions. An ideal location would be a place where a child or young person feels calm. A literacy assessment could look at a specific area of literacy, or multiple areas of literacy. Literacy assessments will be appropriate for a child or young person’s developmental age.

Which literacy assessments do we use?

The specific literacy assessment(s) used will be chosen based on the individual. The main assessments we use during literacy assessments are:

  • PhAB2 - Phonological assessment battery is used to identify children with potential language difficulties, and it measures; initial sound isolation, speed of phonological production, rhyme identification, segmenting, phonological information, decoding ability, blending, phoneme separation
  • YARC - York assessment of reading for comprehension (YARC) is a diagnostic reading assessment
  • TROG - Test for reception of grammar measures the understanding of grammatical contrasts and can be used from age 4
  • CELF - Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals, for literacy assessments we would use subtests which measure; phonological awareness, naming, memory, sequences, word associations, language structure, language content, language memory, working memory
  • ACE - Assessment of comprehension and expression provides information about language ability, and measures; verbal comprehension, expression, grammar, semantic and pragmatic knowledge
  • NARA - Neale assessment of reading ability can be used for children aged 6-12 to measure their accuracy, comprehension and rate of reading
  • BAS3 - British ability scales are used to assess children’s current intellectual functioning and for literacy assessments we would use subtests which measure; verbal ability, non-verbal reasoning, special non verbal composite
  • WISC-V - Wechsler intelligence scale for children can be used to provide a full cognitive profile of strengths and difficulties, including; verbal comprehension, visual spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, processing speed, quantitative reasoning, auditory working memory, non-verbal, general ability and cognitive proficiency
  • DASH-17 - Detailed assessment of speed of handwriting, measures; precision skills, fine motor skills, alter speed and producing symbols
  • WRIT - Wide range intelligence test provides a general measure of intelligence and can be administered in under an hour and measures; verbal IQ, visual IQ, general IQ
  • TOMAL-2 - Test of memory and learning can be used from age 5 and measures; verbal memory, non-verbal memory, composite memory, verbal delayed recall, learning, attention and concentration, sequential memory, free recall, associative recall

There are other assessments and ways to assess literacy abilities and these will be discussed during the initial discussion, before the assessment takes place.

What happens after a literacy assessment?

After a literacy assessment we will be able to provide information about a child or young person’s literacy strengths and needs. Recommendations may include further assessments, interventions or learning aids. Follow up services are available after all assessments to ensure that individuals feel supported at all stages of the process.

Does a literacy assessment come with a report?

A literacy assessment could be requested for various reasons which is why a report is optional. If a report is not necessary then feedback could be provided verbally along with a brief summary. Find out more about the types of reports we offer.


Arrange an initial discussion.....

Arrange an initial discussion to find out how we can benefit your education setting. The initial discussion lasts 2 hours and is a starting point to identify needs. The cost is £300.

  • No waiting lists
  • Experienced psychologists
  • Includes recommendation summary

Find out more

only

£300




See all testimonials





Flexible, consistent, and competitively priced

We provide bespoke solutions to suit all budgets and requirements for children and young people aged 0-25 in homes, education settings and the community. Our clinical, educational and child psychology services are cost effective.

See our prices

Make a referral

To make a referral and arrange an initial discussion please complete our referral form.

Make a referral

Next steps...

Ready to get started? The next step is to speak to our team to find out more about the services we provide and how we can help. Call us on 0161 820 9229 or email office@hsrpsychology.co.uk

Get in touch

Other pages:

We're registered...