Free Dyslexia Screener For Children And Teenagers

How The Screener Works

The screener is a short dyslexia questionnaire you do at home, not a quiz your child sits. You choose the stage your child is at. The questions that follow are written for that stage, in Australian school terms, and each one says why it is asked. Then come a few questions about the background.

• Before school (about 3 to 5): talking and the sounds in words, then memory, words and letters.
• Primary school (Prep or Foundation to Year 6): reading, then spelling, writing and memory.
• High school (Year 7 to Year 12): reading, then tests, notes and study.
• Every family: whether a parent, brother or sister has had lasting difficulty with reading or spelling, and whether hearing and eyesight have been checked.
• A school-aged child: which year they are in, how long reading and spelling have been a worry, whether extra help has been tried, and whether the school or a check such as the Year 1 Phonics Check or NAPLAN has raised a concern.

What A Dyslexia Screener Can And Cannot Tell You

A dyslexia screener can bring together what you have noticed, compare it with the signs that matter at your child’s stage, and suggest whether a closer look is worth arranging. It cannot tell you whether your child has dyslexia. No online dyslexia test can.

What It Can Do

• Show the signs you see often and sometimes, in one list you can take to the teacher.
• Take account of how long the difficulty has lasted and what help has been tried, which is what separates a slow start from a lasting difficulty.
• Point to a next step: keep watching, talk to the teacher, or arrange an assessment.

What It Cannot Do

• Diagnose dyslexia, or rule it out. AUSPELD is clear that the purpose of screening is to find children at risk, not to identify dyslexia.
• See your child read. It is built on your observations, which is useful, but not the same as watching a child work through words.
• Tell dyslexia apart from other things that look like it, such as a language difficulty, attention difficulties or a hearing problem. The signs of dyslexia in children page explains what is and is not a sign on its own.

Long general checklists catch many children who do not have dyslexia, as the Australian Dyslexia Association warns, so the screener asks about a short list of signs and about how long they have lasted.

How The Result Is Worked Out

The result is not a number shown to you and not a likelihood. The screener tallies the signs you see, then looks at how long the difficulty has lasted.

• Each sign you see often counts as one, and each sign you see sometimes counts as a half.
• For a school-aged child, an assessment is a reasonable next step when the count is four or more and reading and spelling have been a worry for six months or more. For a child in Prep, extra help must also have been tried.
• Talk to the teacher first when the count is two or more, or the school has raised a concern, but the other conditions are not met.
• Keep watching, and check again later when fewer signs are seen often.
• Before school, a count of three or more gives early signs worth acting on now, and fewer gives nothing to act on yet. A child who has not been taught to read cannot be assessed for dyslexia itself, so neither result leads to an application. The early signs of dyslexia before school checklist explains each sign.
• A note is added when dyslexia runs in the family, and when hearing and eyesight have not both been checked.

Result	What it means	Next step
An assessment is a reasonable next step	Several signs, seen often, lasting six months or more	Read what happens on the day and the fee, then apply if you choose
Talk to the teacher first	Some signs, a recent worry, or (in Prep) no extra help yet	Ask what the teacher sees and what help can start; screen again after a term or two
Keep watching	Few signs seen often	Keep reading together; screen again if reading falls behind
Early signs worth acting on now (before school)	Several early signs, seen often	Tell the educator, check hearing, see a speech pathologist about unclear speech or late language, screen again after the first year of school
Nothing to act on yet (before school)	Few early signs	Keep sharing books and rhymes; screen again after a year of reading teaching

Before you apply, read what happens on the day, how dyslexia is diagnosed in Australia and what the assessment costs.