Learning Differences

When reading, writing, or math challenges create roadblocks for your child, understanding the underlying cause can make all the difference.

This service is included in the full psychological assessment

Reading & Writing (dyslexia/dysgraphia)

Reading and writing can be challenging for lots of different reasons. An evaluation can help us understand what’s getting in the way, identify your child’s strengths, and explore whether a learning difference such as dyslexia (reading) or dysgraphia (writing) may be part of the picture.

We look beyond whether your child is simply good or bad at reading or writing. Testing helps us understand the specific skills that may be harder for them and what kinds of support can make learning more accessible.

Some signs that reading or writing may be harder than expected:

• Connecting letters and sounds: Having trouble matching written letters with the sounds they make.

• Sounding out words: Difficulty breaking words into sounds or blending sounds together when reading.

• Reading fluency: Reading slowly or with significant effort, which can make it harder to follow or understand what they’re reading.

• Reading accurately: Skipping words, mixing up words, or relying on guessing rather than reading the full word.

• Understanding what they read: Having difficulty remembering what they’ve read or following written directions.

• Spelling: Continuing to struggle with spelling despite instruction and practice, or spelling the same word differently at different times.

• Handwriting: Finding handwriting unusually difficult, tiring, slow, or hard to read.

• Getting thoughts onto paper: Knowing what they want to say but struggling to organize or communicate those ideas in writing.

• Avoiding reading or writing: Becoming frustrated, anxious, overwhelmed, or resistant when asked to read or write.

Math Skills (dyscalculia)

Struggling with math doesn’t always mean your child needs more practice. Difficulties with numbers, calculations, or problem-solving can sometimes point to an underlying learning difference such as dyscalculia. An evaluation can help identify what’s making math harder and where your child may need additional support.

Testing can help us look more closely at number sense, calculation, problem-solving, memory, attention, and visual-spatial skills to better understand your child’s individual learning needs.

Some signs that your child may need extra support with math:

• Understanding numbers: Having trouble recognizing numbers, putting them in order, comparing amounts, or understanding how numbers relate to each other.

• Learning math concepts: Difficulty understanding concepts like place value, fractions, measurement, or time.

• Remembering math facts: Struggling to learn or recall basic math facts even with repeated practice.

• Calculations: Making frequent errors when adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.

• Solving math problems: Having difficulty figuring out what steps or operations to use, especially with word problems.

• Keeping track of steps: Losing their place during multi-step problems or having trouble remembering formulas and procedures while working.

• Visual-spatial skills: Difficulty lining up numbers, reading graphs, understanding geometry, or organizing math work on a page.

• Noticing math details: Missing operation signs, decimal points, or other important pieces of a problem.

• Avoiding math: Becoming frustrated, anxious, overwhelmed, or resistant when asked to do math.