Can I Test My Child for a Learning Disability Online?

Learning disability tests online offer a quick and easy way to investigate your child’s learning problems. Online tests can be the first step in a rather lengthy assessment process to determine if your child has a learning disability. Online learning disability tests aren’t official assessments and don’t lead to a learning disorder diagnosis regardless of how strongly they indicate a learning disability.

Although an online test can’t tell you if your child has a learning disability, it can provide you with useful information. Online assessments are screenings that allow you and your child to evaluate symptoms they’re experiencing. They often consist of checklists, rating scales, and other simple methods to clarify learning problems your child might be facing.

When the screening is complete, you receive a profile of your child’s areas of strengths and weaknesses. These results are meant to be a learning disability assessment tool to increase your understanding of your child’s difficulties as well as communicate your concerns to the school. Your child’s teacher or the principal with meet with you to discuss your child before meeting with other school professionals. If everyone agrees that learning disorder tests are necessary, the formal testing process will begin.

Learning Disability Assessment

The learning disability assessment process is one of gathering information about a child to determine if they have a learning disability. Information learned throughout the process will also shape learning disorder interventions for the individualized education program (IEP) that will be created to help your child succeed if they have a learning disability.

Learning disability assessment activities come in many forms. Common methods of assessment that might be used to evaluate your child include:

• Written observations of your child’s performance and behavior, completed by your child’s teachers and, often, parents to compare school and home behavior
• Interviews with the child, family members, and other relevant people such as coaches
• Checklists
• Rating Scales
• Informal tests
• Formal, standardized tests

Formal testing, also known as psychoeducational evaluation, involves a full battery of tests and provides objective, measurable results. Federal law mandates that testing be paid for by the school district. Parents can choose to have their child tested privately, but they must pay for the services themselves.

Among the qualified professionals who are authorized to administer learning disability tests for your child are:

• Clinical psychologist
• Child psychiatrist
• Educational psychologist
• Neuropsychologist
• Psychometrist

Another testing option for your child is to use learning disability testing centers. The professionals who administer tests at centers are as qualified as those listed above, but the fee is more reasonable. Local university testing centers are good choices, as are teaching hospitals when they are doing relevant research projects. A quick call will let you know if they’re currently administering learning disorders tests.

As this procedure progresses, there are different types of tests that your child might take.

Types of Learning Disability Tests

Some tests target the disability your child is suspected of having in order to verify or refute the disorder. Other tests look at your child’s global functioning to create a general profile. This adds to everyone’s understanding of your child and whether there’s a learning disability present. Many tests measure how your child’s ability compares to achievement. Some types of tests:

• Educational achievement
• Intellectual, or cognitive, testing (a type of test in this category is an intelligence quotient (IQ) test)
• Questionnaires
• Surveys
• Neuropsychological

What Info Is Gained from a Learning Disability Assessment?

The testing process to determine the presence of a learning disability is tedious but effective and valuable. As the testers and evaluators compile the results, they come to understand your child and their learning problems very well. Some of the information they learn includes:

• How this learning disability impacts your child at school and home
• Your child’s strengths and weaknesses
• The areas of functioning negatively impacted
• The degree (mild, moderate, or severe) of your child’s disability
• Whether an IEP and special education is needed
• The educational, emotional, and behavioral issues needing the most attention

Learning disability assessment isn’t a simple question with a yes-or-no answer. It’s complex, and it’s reliable. What sometimes starts as a concerned parent and child taking a learning disability test online to understand symptoms can end in results that move your child forward. You’ll get answers, and your child will get help so they can learn the same material as their classmates in a way that accommodates their learning disability.  

See Also:

• How Do You Define a Special Needs Child?
• What Are the Characteristics of a Learning Disability?
• What Are the Different Types of Learning Disabilities?
• Tips for Parenting Children with Special Needs

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