Child and Teen Dyslexia Assessments

At Tabla Psychology, we offer dyslexia assessments for children and teens who are experiencing ongoing difficulties with reading, spelling, writing or learning.

All assessments take place in our calm and welcoming clinic, designed to help children and young people feel safe, settled and supported throughout the process.

Two dyslexia assessment pathways are available:

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Standard Dyslexia Assessment – £400

Delivered by James Turley

James Turley is a qualified teacher and specialist assessor with training in dyslexia assessment. His work is professionally supervised by Dr Tamasine Black, Consultant Educational and Child Psychologist and Founder of Tabla Psychology.

This pathway is suitable for children and young people who are able to engage with assessment tasks without significant emotional, sensory or anxiety-based barriers.

Specialist Dyslexia Assessment (Complex Presentation)

Delivered by Dr Tamasine Black

Dr Black offers a specialist dyslexia assessment for children and young people whose learning profile is shaped by additional factors such as:

• Anxiety or heightened emotional sensitivity
• Sensory sensitivities
• School trauma or negative educational experiences
• School avoidance or difficulty engaging with formal tasks
• Demand sensitivity, shutdown or task avoidance

These assessments take a specialist, highly experienced approach, adapting the assessment process to the child or young person rather than expecting the child to adapt to the assessment.

Additional, specialist-level information is gathered from parents, teachers and the child or young person themselves, allowing the assessment to be carefully planned so that:

• the child or teenager feels comfortable and emotionally safe
• the assessment can be completed meaningfully
• the learning profile is accurately understood in context

This pathway is appropriate where a standard assessment approach may not fully capture a child’s needs or where engagement itself requires clinical skill and flexibility.

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What to expect from a dyslexia assessment

Your child’s assessment is carried out in a calm and supportive way, helping them feel at ease throughout. Each assessment lasts between 50 and 90 minutes, giving us enough time to build a clear picture of how your child learns.

Rather than a simple screening, this process looks carefully at their strengths and areas of difficulty across key learning skills.

During the assessment, we look at:

• Reading
• Writing and spelling
• Working memory
• Processing skills

All assessments are SASC compliant.

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All dyslexia assessments include:

• A detailed developmental and educational history
• Standardised assessment measures (adapted where appropriate)
• Observation of learning strengths and difficulties
• A clear written report describing the individual learning profile
• Practical recommendations for school and home

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Which dyslexia assessment is right for my child?

If your child has literacy difficulties without additional emotional or sensory needs, a standard dyslexia assessment with James Turley is usually appropriate.

If your child experiences anxiety, sensory sensitivity, school trauma, school avoidance, or difficulty engaging with assessment tasks, the specialist dyslexia assessment with Dr Black is more appropriate, as it allows for a flexible, trauma-aware and clinically informed approach.

If you are unsure which pathway is the best fit, we are happy to advise.