Adult & Workplace Dyslexia Assessments

You don't have to be at school or university to benefit from an assessment. I see many adults who have completed their education and have reached a point where they simply want to understand why they do some things differently.

Sometimes difficulties become more noticeable because of increased responsibility at work, a promotion, professional training or a change in circumstances. For others, it is prompted by seeing similar difficulties in their own children and recognising themselves in the description.

And sometimes there isn't a particular trigger at all. You may simply have spent years thinking:

"Why do I find this so much harder than everyone else seems to?"

An assessment can help answer that question.

"I've managed all these years..."

Many adults have developed highly effective ways of compensating for their difficulties. You might be extremely capable in some areas while quietly putting enormous amounts of effort into others.

You may recognise things such as:

taking much longer than expected to read or write
avoiding particular tasks whenever possible
struggling to get thoughts onto paper despite knowing exactly what you want to say
difficulties with spelling, numbers or mental calculations
forgetting instructions or losing track of information
problems with organisation, planning or time management
becoming overwhelmed when several things need your attention
having to check and recheck your work
feeling disproportionately tired after certain types of work
experiencing frustration, anxiety or reduced confidence around tasks you've always found difficult

None of these things automatically means that you have dyslexia or another Specific Learning Difficulty.

That is precisely why a good assessment can be useful.

Looking at the bigger picture

Adult assessment is not simply about completing a dyslexia test.

Difficulties with literacy, maths, attention, memory, processing, organisation, coordination and emotional wellbeing can overlap considerably.

Life experience matters too. By adulthood, you have had years to develop strategies, choose environments that suit you and sometimes avoid the things you find particularly difficult. That can make the picture more complicated, but also more interesting to understand.

My background across education, psychology, SEND and mental health means that I naturally approach assessment from a broader perspective. I sometimes describe the process as detective work. We have your history, your experiences and the psychometric assessment results. My job is to bring those clues together and work out the most coherent explanation.

The aim isn't to find a label. It's to make sense of things.

What can I assess?

Depending on your circumstances and the questions you would like answered, the assessment can consider areas including:

Dyslexia and literacy difficulties
Dyscalculia and maths difficulties
Attention and executive functioning
Memory and processing
Coordination and possible DCD/dyspraxia
Visual stress
The impact of difficulties on confidence and emotional wellbeing

There are professional boundaries around the diagnosis of some conditions, including ADHD and DCD. Where something falls outside my diagnostic remit, I will always be clear about this. However, I can still explore relevant difficulties, consider how they may relate to your overall profile and recommend further investigation where appropriate.

Sometimes, simply knowing matters. Not everyone comes for an assessment because they need something from an employer. For some adults, having an explanation is valuable in itself. If you've spent years believing that you're careless, disorganised, bad at spelling, terrible with numbers or simply "not academic", discovering that there is an identifiable pattern behind those experiences can change how you view them.

A diagnosis doesn't change who you are. But understanding yourself can change the way you approach difficulties and, importantly, the way you recognise your strengths. For some people, that is one of the most valuable outcomes of assessment.

Support in the workplace

If difficulties are affecting you at work, the assessment can help identify areas where appropriate support or adjustments may make things easier. Recommendations are individual rather than generic and might include changes to working practices, technology, communication, organisation or the way particular tasks are approached.

Depending on your circumstances, the report may also be useful when discussing support or reasonable adjustments with your employer. The objective isn't simply to make work easier. It is to identify unnecessary barriers so that you have a better opportunity to demonstrate what you can actually do.

Strategies, understanding and what happens next

For adults, recommendations can often go beyond traditional educational strategies.

My background in psychology and CBT means I am particularly interested in the relationship between how we think, how we work and how years of experiencing difficulty can affect confidence and behaviour.

Sometimes the most useful next step is a practical strategy. Sometimes it is technology, workplace support or coaching. Sometimes it is simply understanding why a particular situation causes difficulty and finding a different way of approaching it.

This process is sometimes described as psychoeducation, but really it means something much simpler:

Understanding how you work, why certain things are difficult and what you can do about them.

What about maths difficulties?

If maths or working with numbers is part of your concern, we can discuss this during our initial conversation. A dyslexia assessment can often include some initial exploration of maths difficulties to establish whether a more comprehensive maths assessment would be helpful.

Where both a full dyslexia and maths assessment are needed, I would usually recommend two appointments.

There can be a lot to investigate, and I would rather give you sufficient time and breaks than try to squeeze everything into one demanding session.

Your report, and what happens next

Following your assessment, you'll receive a thorough diagnostic report meeting current SASC requirements, usually within one week. I'll explain what I've found in straightforward language, including your strengths as well as your difficulties, and provide practical recommendations relevant to your circumstances.

Most importantly, I want you to finish the process with a clearer understanding of yourself than when you started. And the report doesn't have to be the end of the conversation. I'm happy to discuss the findings afterwards, answer questions and help you think through what might be useful next.