You or your child may be working harder than anyone around you realizes and still falling behind. Learning disorders are not a reflection of intelligence, effort, or character. There are neurological differences in how the brain processes information, and they can affect anyone at any age. Without an accurate assessment, the real reason for the struggle often goes unnamed while the person experiencing it carries the weight of being labeled lazy, careless, or not trying hard enough. That label is almost always wrong. At Old Town Psychology, we provide comprehensive learning disorder assessments for children and adults in Alexandria, VA, going beyond a simple diagnosis to uncover the full picture and equip you with a clear, actionable path forward. We have immediate openings, so you do not have to wait months to get answers.
What Is a Learning Disorder Assessment?
A learning disorder assessment is a comprehensive psychological evaluation designed to determine whether an individual has a specific learning disability and to distinguish it from other conditions that can produce similar challenges, including ADHD, intellectual developmental disorder, and anxiety. Because these conditions can look alike on the surface but require very different interventions, accurate differentiation is one of the most important things a thorough evaluation provides.
Learning disorders are biologically based conditions that affect how the brain processes, interprets, stores, and retrieves information. They are not caused by inadequate instruction, lack of motivation, or limited intelligence. People with learning disorders often have average to above-average intelligence but experience a significant, unexplained gap between their overall ability and their performance in specific academic or cognitive areas.
At Old Town Psychology, our learning disorder assessments are conducted by licensed psychologists and are designed to be thorough, nuanced, and clinically precise. We do not simply identify the presence of a learning disorder; we work to understand the specific nature of the difficulty, rule out alternative explanations, and provide individualized recommendations that translate the findings into meaningful support.
Signs You Need a Learning Disorder Assessment
Learning disorders present differently depending on the specific condition, the age of the individual, and the demands of their environment. Many people, particularly adults, have found workarounds that partially compensate for their difficulties, making the underlying disorder less visible but no less real. The following signs, organized by condition, may indicate that a formal evaluation is warranted.
Reading difficulties (Dyslexia):
- Slow, effortful, or inaccurate reading, even after years of instruction
- Significant difficulty with spelling, despite repeated exposure to words
- Trouble accurately pronouncing or recognizing words, particularly unfamiliar ones
- Avoiding reading aloud or reading silently at a pace well below your peers
- Difficulty understanding what has been read due to the effort consumed by decoding
Math difficulties (Dyscalculia):
- Persistent struggles with basic arithmetic that do not resolve with practice
- Difficulty understanding number quantities and the relationship between numbers
- Reversing or transposing numbers when writing or reading them
- Struggling to follow multi-step math procedures or understand underlying math concepts
- Avoiding tasks that require numerical reasoning or estimation
Writing difficulties (Dysgraphia):
- Difficulty forming letters consistently or writing in a straight line
- Reversing letters or producing writing that is significantly below the expected level for age
- Struggling to translate thoughts into written sentences with correct grammar and structure
- Writing tasks that take significantly longer than expected or produce significant avoidance
- A marked gap between what a person can express verbally and what they can produce in writing
Attention difficulties (ADHD):
- Persistent difficulty sustaining attention across tasks, even those that matter
- Significant organizational challenges, forgetfulness, or difficulty managing time
- Impulsivity, restlessness, or difficulty waiting and taking turns
- A pattern of starting but not finishing tasks
You can learn more about our ADHD-specific assessments on our ADHD assessment page.
Intellectual developmental concerns:
- Significant difficulty learning foundational academic skills such as reading, writing, math, telling time, or managing money
- Challenges with abstract thinking, planning, judgment, and short-term memory that go beyond a specific subject area
- Difficulty relating to or communicating with others in ways that are meaningfully below developmental expectations
- Needing assistance with complex daily tasks that peers manage independently
It is important to distinguish intellectual developmental disorder from a specific learning disorder, as they are different conditions with different treatment implications. Our assessments are equipped to make this distinction accurately.
What Does a Learning Disorder Assessment Help With?
For children and adults who have been struggling without answers, a learning disorder assessment is often a turning point. Here is what a comprehensive evaluation at Old Town Psychology provides:
An accurate diagnosis: A formal diagnosis of dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, or another specific learning disability, documented in a comprehensive psychological report, provides the clinical foundation for accessing the interventions and accommodations that can genuinely change the trajectory of an academic or professional life.
Ruling out other explanations: Anxiety, ADHD, intellectual developmental disorder, and other conditions can all produce symptoms that resemble a learning disorder. An accurate evaluation ensures you are not treating the wrong thing and identifies any co-occurring conditions that need their own attention.
Academic accommodations: For children, a formal learning disorder diagnosis is typically the key that unlocks school-based supports,including an Individualized Education Program (IEP), a 504 Plan, specialized instruction, extended time, and other accommodations that level the playing field. For adults, it supports accommodations in college, graduate and professional school, and on standardized or licensure examinations.
Early intervention for children: For children, identifying a learning disorder early is especially important. Foundational skills in reading, writing, and mathematics are the building blocks for everything that follows academically. The earlier a learning disorder is identified and addressed, the more effectively those foundations can be built before gaps become harder to close.
Targeted, personalized recommendations: Beyond diagnosis, you will receive specific, practical recommendations tailored to your unique profile. This can help educators, therapists, tutors, and you yourself. The findings will be immediately useful rather than sitting in a report that no one knows what to do with.
Self-understanding and relief. For many people, receiving a learning disorder diagnosis as an adult is accompanied by a profound sense of relief; finally having an explanation for a lifetime of struggle that was never about intelligence or effort. That understanding matters, and it is part of what we provide.
What Does a Learning Disorder Assessment Look Like?
Our learning disorder assessment is a comprehensive, multi-step process conducted by a licensed psychologist. Here is what the evaluation involves:
Clinical Interview
Your assessment begins with a thorough clinical interview covering developmental and educational history, current academic or professional concerns, prior evaluations or diagnoses, family history, and the specific challenges that prompted the referral. For children, parents are interviewed in depth. For adults, a partner or family member may provide valuable context.
Standardized Rating Scales
Where relevant, behavioral and academic rating scales are completed by the client, parents, and teachers to capture how the individual is functioning across different settings and to provide important supplementary information alongside formal testing.
Psychological Testing
We administer a comprehensive battery of gold-standard assessments tailored to the individual’s age and presenting concerns. The testing at Old Town Psychology includes:
- WISC-V (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition) or WAIS-5 (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition): Age-appropriate measures of intellectual functioning that assess cognitive abilities across verbal comprehension, visual-spatial reasoning, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed, providing the cognitive baseline against which achievement and processing are compared.
- WIAT (Wechsler Individual Achievement Test): A comprehensive measure of academic achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics, identifying the level at which current skills are functioning and where significant gaps exist relative to cognitive ability and age expectations.
- WJ (Woodcock-Johnson Tests): A broad-based assessment of cognitive abilities and academic achievement that adds depth and breadth to the evaluation across areas relevant to learning disorders.
- CTOPP (Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing): A specialized assessment of phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid naming: the core processing skills most directly implicated in reading disorders such as dyslexia. The CTOPP is essential for accurately identifying and characterizing reading-based learning disabilities.
Comprehensive Report and Feedback Session
Once all data has been gathered and analyzed, we prepare a detailed written report that integrates the findings, provides a clear diagnostic conclusion, and outlines specific, actionable recommendations. We then meet with you in a dedicated feedback appointment to walk through the report, answer your questions, and ensure you leave with a thorough understanding of the results and a concrete sense of next steps.
"We brought our daughter in for testing and the OTP team was amazing. They were so kind, caring and great with children. My daughter is shy and takes a little time to warm up when first meeting someone new. The Doctor was patient and encouraging and my daughter had a wonderful time. They also provide fast results and meet with you to explain everything in the report. I would definitely recommend them."
"Very prompt response to our inquiry. Welcoming environment and very professional, thorough communication. The staff genuinely seems to care that your needs are met."
"Excellent service, knowledgeable staff, incredible responsiveness, diligence and follow through -- we feel lucky we found such a great therapy practice. We cannot recommend them highly enough!"
“My daughter took WISC-V test there and we are very pleased with our experience. They are professional, patient and wonderful throughout the entire process. My daughter had such a great time that she hardly felt that was a test - she even asked when she could take it again. I would highly recommend them to whoever needs child IQ testing services.”
“I took my children here for TAG testing. Both of my kids actually enjoyed their assessments. I was very pleased with the time and care taken to assess my children, the thoroughness of the report, and the fact that there was a follow-up session to discuss any questions that I had relative to the assessment included. Also-- the tea selection in the waiting room is top tier :)”
“Very prompt response to our inquiry. Welcoming environment and very professional, thorough communication. The staff genuinely seems to care that your needs are met.”
Take the Next Step
The struggle you or your child has been experiencing deserves a real explanation and a real plan. A learning disorder assessment at Old Town Psychology provides both. We maintain immediate availability for new assessment clients.
To schedule a learning disorder assessment or to ask any questions, contact us today.
