Welcome Parents

---

A thorough literacy assessment of key foundational literacy skills is conducted, using the Science of Reading research. This includes phonemic awareness, phonological knowledge, phoneme-grapheme correspondences (letter-sounds), reading and spelling ages, plus a basic investigation of visual and auditory processing. These can help to identify processing challenges or working memory issues, which are often common with people with learning differences.

New screeners to Alphability - 

• TILLS, standardised language and literacy screener for literacy and language disorders including writing/Dysgraphia.
• Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale - Children & Adolescents (BDEFS-CA), find out if executive functioning is a difficulty for your child and screen for ADHD
• PsychProfiler, using the DSM-5-TR manual, this online tool screens for all neurodevelopmental disorders and provides a report from parents and teachers. Alphability then interprets the results along side other assessments to help direct your family to the right diagnostic assessment, support or intervention.

Each report explains the results from the assessments, draws conclusions on the needs of your child and lists several pages of recommendations for home and school. This report is extremely useful to inform your school on how to support your child, plus can be given to paediatricians or educational psychologists to help with their assessment of your child's needs. If your child is transitioning to a new school or new year, these reports provide great support for an effective transition.

The best result from the assessment and report is seeing changes in the education of your child, including possible inclusion in synthetic phonics based intervention programs at school, such as Mini-Lit and Macq-Lit. This is not always possible, so tutoring with a qualified SLD specialist, such as Alphability, is recommended.

Is the assessment online or face-to-face?

Either. Whichever option works best for your child it can be arranged within the availability of Alphability.

How long does the assessment and report take?

When it is face-to-face, it is usually about 1.5 hours as we can take mini-breaks. Online, it is often 30-45 minutes at a time to support the child's ability to focus and work online without breaks. The report will be emailed to you within 3 weeks of the assessment session and a time can be booked to discuss the report with your family and/or school. 

When can the assessment appointment happen?

It is best to do the assessment in the morning, when your child is most responsive and not mentally fatigued from school. Currently, there is availability for assessments on the weekends or school holidays. Please email to make an enquiry and a booking.

What is the cost of a literacy assessment and report?

The cost covers the 1.5 hrs of my time during the assessment and the 3-4 hours of analysis and report writing completed to provide you with an effective resource to support your child. The assessments include standardised tests with DIBELS and other reading, processing/RAN tasks. It is an investment of $500 for your child's education and future.

What is the cost of a TILLS assessment and report?

This new assessment acts as a screener for literacy and language based disorders, it is normed and standardised with populations in the USA. It will provide a thorough screening of your child's needs and potential for a Specific Learning Disorder so that you know where to go for intervention and how to inform your school for support. As TILLS involves standardised tests with specific, costly resources, this assessment and report is $650.