Think-Top Educational Institute Free Tool
Reading Difficulty Pre-Assessment

Is your child really struggling,
or do they just need more practice?

This checklist helps you understand what you are seeing at home and at school, and whether your child needs specialist support.

22 Questions About 5 minutes No login needed Based on reading research

A few things to know before you start

There are no right or wrong answers. Just answer based on what you see at home and what your child's teacher has told you. Be as honest as you can. The more honest you are, the more useful the result will be.

This checklist covers five areas of reading. At the end, you will get a personalised result that explains what the signs mean and what to do next.

This tool is based on reading research. The questions come from screening criteria used by the International Dyslexia Association and studies on how children learn to read. It is not a diagnosis, but it will tell you whether what you are seeing is serious enough to act on.
How old is your child?
Your Progress 0 of 22 answered
Part 1 of 5

Reading the Words

How well does your child read the actual words on the page?

When reading out loud, my child guesses words from pictures or the story, instead of actually reading the letters on the page.
My child skips words, swaps a word for one that looks similar (like reading "home" for "house"), or says words that are not even on the page.
My child cannot sound out a word they have never seen before. They do not know how to go through it letter by letter to figure it out.
Simple words that come up all the time, like "the," "was," "said," "they," and "where," are still hard for my child to read, even after lots of practice.
My child reads much more slowly than other children their age. Reading out loud sounds choppy and stops and starts, rather than flowing smoothly.
Part 2 of 5

Hearing and Working with Sounds

How well does your child hear the sounds inside words and work with them?

My child has trouble rhyming. If you ask "What rhymes with cat?" they cannot easily come up with words like hat, bat, or mat.
My child struggles to break a word into its separate sounds, or to put sounds together to make a word. For example, they cannot break "stop" into s-t-o-p, or turn c-a-t into "cat."
My child mixes up letters that look similar, like b and d, p and q, or m and w, when reading or writing. Some confusion is normal before age 7
My child has trouble remembering things in order, like the alphabet, the months of the year, the times tables, or a short list of instructions you just gave them.
Part 3 of 5

Writing and Spelling

Reading and spelling difficulties almost always go together. This section looks at the writing side.

My child spells the same word differently every time, even in the same piece of work. A word spelled right today might be spelled wrong tomorrow.
When my child tries to spell a word, what they write down does not look like the word at all. You often cannot tell what word they were trying to write.
My child can talk well and has good ideas, but getting those ideas onto paper is very hard for them. Speaking and writing are completely different for this child.
Part 4 of 5

What Reading Feels Like

What does the experience of reading actually look and feel like for your child?

My child reads a word correctly on one line, then a few lines later does not recognise that same word at all, as if they have never seen it before.
My child easily loses their place while reading. They skip lines, read the same line twice, or need to use their finger just to keep track of where they are.
My child complains of headaches, tired eyes, or feeling worn out after only a short time reading, even though their eyesight has been checked and is fine.
My child is clearly smart. They are curious, ask good questions, and understand things when you explain them. But their reading is much worse than you would expect from how clever they are.
Part 5 of 5

How Your Child Feels About Reading

These last questions are about how reading affects your child at home and at school.

My child avoids reading. They make excuses not to read, refuse to read out loud, or get upset and frustrated when reading is asked of them.
My child says things like "I'm stupid," "I hate reading," "I can't do it," or "I'm not smart like the others." Reading has hurt how they feel about themselves.
Even with extra help, practice at home, and trying hard, my child's reading has not improved the way it should. It feels stuck, no matter what we do.
My child's teacher has told me they are worried about the reading, or my child has been given extra reading support at school, or placed in a lower reading group.
One or both parents, or a brother or sister in the family, has had real trouble with reading, or has been told they have a reading or learning difficulty.
My child was slow to start talking as a young child, had speech problems, or went to speech therapy.

Please answer all 22 questions to continue.

Overall Concern Level
Low concern Moderate Significant High concern

Where the concerns show up most

Reading Words
Hearing Sounds
Writing and Spelling
The Reading Experience
Feelings and Background

Book a Diagnostic Assessment at Think-Top Educational Institute

A diagnostic reading assessment gives you a clear picture of exactly where your child's reading breaks down, and precisely what kind of teaching will fix it.

Diagnostics firstWe find out exactly what is happening before anything else.
Structured literacyOrton-Gillingham method, the most researched reading approach in the world.
Maximum 6 studentsSmall groups so every child gets the attention they need.
Book a Diagnostic Assessment St. Augustine, Trinidad · thinktopinstitute.com · @thinktoptutors
Please note: This checklist is a screening tool, not a clinical diagnosis. It is based on validated screening criteria from the International Dyslexia Association, the Rose Report (2006), and research on phonological processing disorders (Wagner and Torgesen, 1987; Shaywitz, 2003; National Reading Panel, 2000). A formal diagnosis requires a qualified specialist. Think-Top Educational Institute's diagnostic assessment is the recommended next step for children scoring in the Significant or High Concern range.