How to get a child assessed for dyslexia in India (and from the UAE and Singapore)

A formal dyslexia diagnosis comes from a psycho-educational assessment by a qualified psychologist. In India you reach one through hospitals, child guidance clinics, and private child development centres; in the UAE and Singapore through licensed psychologists or the Dyslexia Association of Singapore. An informal reading and spelling assessment is a quicker first step that shows exactly where reading breaks down.

First, be clear about what you are asking

Parents who write to me usually have one of two questions, and they need different answers.

The first question is “does my child have dyslexia?” That is a diagnostic question, and the honest answer is that only a formal psycho-educational assessment can settle it. If you need a certificate for school accommodations or board exams, this is the route you will eventually take.

The second question is “why is reading so hard for my child, and what do we do about it?” That is a teaching question. It does not need a diagnosis to answer, and waiting months for testing appointments before anyone looks at the reading itself is time a struggling reader cannot spare. I have written about what those struggles look like in why some children are not reading yet, and about the condition itself in all about dyslexia.

Most families end up needing both answers. The order depends on your child’s age, your school’s requirements, and how long the waiting lists are where you live.

What happens in a formal assessment?

A psycho-educational assessment is a structured session, or two, with a psychologist. Expect a detailed history first: birth, milestones, schooling, family patterns, because dyslexia runs in families. Then the psychologist works with your child through standardised tests: a cognitive measure of reasoning and memory, and achievement tests of reading, spelling, and writing, usually including phonological tasks that look at how your child handles the sounds inside words.

The whole process typically takes two to four hours, often split across visits so a young child is not exhausted into false results. Some weeks later you receive a written report with scores, a conclusion, and recommendations. If the difficulty is significant and specific to reading and spelling, the report will say so, using terms like “specific learning disability” or “dyslexia”.

One thing worth knowing before you go: the label on the report matters less than the detail inside it. A good report tells you which skills are weak and which are intact, and that is what a teacher or therapist builds on.

Who does formal assessments in India?

In India, the assessment is done by a clinical psychologist, usually working within a team at a government hospital, a child guidance clinic, or a private child development centre. Larger cities have dedicated centres; in smaller cities the paediatric department of a major hospital is the usual starting point. Your paediatrician can refer you, and your school counsellor often knows which local centres other families have used.

If you want the assessment to count towards provisions at school or in board exams, ask one question before you book anywhere: “which certificate does my child’s board accept?” Specific learning disabilities are recognised under India’s Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, and boards do grant accommodations such as extra time. But each board has its own rules about who must issue the certificate, often a government hospital or a designated centre, and those rules change. Your school’s counsellor or exam coordinator will know the current requirement. Getting this right the first time saves you from paying for a report the board will not accept.

Waiting lists at the well-known centres can run to months. Book the slot, and use the waiting time well: reading help can and should begin before the report arrives.

What if we live in the UAE or Singapore?

Many of the families I work with are Indian families abroad, and the routes differ by country.

In the UAE, assessments are done by licensed educational or clinical psychologists at private assessment and child development centres, mainly in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Your child’s school is the natural first stop: its inclusion or learning-support department can usually recommend assessors whose reports the school already trusts. Families in Indian-curriculum schools sometimes prefer to have the assessment done in India during a family visit instead; if you are considering that, confirm with the school beforehand that it will accept a report from the centre you have in mind.

In Singapore, the Dyslexia Association of Singapore offers full psycho-educational assessments, and private educational psychologists provide the same service. Children in local schools can also be supported through the school’s own referral channels, so start by talking to the class teacher or the school’s allied educator.

Wherever you are, the substance of the assessment is the same: history, cognitive measure, reading and spelling tests, written report. What changes is the paperwork around it, so let the school’s requirements guide your choice of assessor.

At what age can a child be assessed?

Most psychologists formally assess for dyslexia from around age seven, after a child has had a fair chance at reading instruction. Before that, results are less reliable because young children vary so widely in how reading starts.

That does not mean you wait until seven to act. The warning signs are visible much earlier, in rhyming, in letter-sound learning, in how a child holds the sounds of words, and I have mapped them stage by stage in signs of dyslexia by age. A five-year-old showing several of those signs needs structured help with sounds and letters now, not a diagnosis. If the difficulty melts away with good teaching, wonderful. If it persists, you will walk into the formal assessment with a year of careful observations that make the psychologist’s job easier.

An assessment tells you what the difficulty is called. Your child’s progress comes from what happens next: teaching that starts exactly where reading breaks down.

What if you just want to know whether reading is the problem?

This is where I usually meet families. Before, or while, you pursue formal testing, you can find out precisely where your child’s reading and spelling stand.

At Flourishing Kids, the first step is the Reading & Spelling Snapshot, an informal reading and spelling assessment I do with your child one to one, online. I listen to your child read, look at spelling and phonological skills, and map exactly where the difficulty sits: which sounds, which patterns, which habits. You receive a written report and we discuss it together, including, honestly, whether I think a formal assessment is worth pursuing and which professionals to approach. It is not a diagnosis and I am clear about that; it is the teaching picture, the one that tells you what to do on Monday.

It also helps untangle mixed pictures. If your child’s difficulty looks like it might be attention rather than print, or both, the one-to-one setting shows it quickly, and I have written about telling the two apart in dyslexia or ADHD.

What should you do with the report?

Whichever assessment you start with, a report only earns its cost when it changes something. Three things to do with it.

Share it with the school, in a sit-down meeting rather than an email attachment. Ask what the school will change in the classroom: seating, reading demands, copying from the board, how spelling is marked.

Start intervention that matches the findings. A diagnosis of dyslexia points to structured, explicit, multisensory teaching of reading and spelling, the approach I use in my own practice, delivered one to one and paced to your child. You can read about me and how I work to see what that looks like.

And file the report safely, because you will need it again: for board exam applications, for school changes, and as the baseline against which progress is measured a year from now.

Above all, do not let the process stall the help. Assessment and intervention are not a sequence; they run in parallel, and the child whose help began while the family waited for a testing date is months ahead of the child whose help waited for the label.

Frequently asked questions

Does my child need a formal diagnosis before starting intervention?

No. Intervention works on skills, not labels, and no ethical therapist will insist on a diagnosis before teaching a struggling reader. You need the formal route when school accommodations, board exam provisions, or an official certificate are the goal.

At what age can dyslexia be formally assessed?

Most psychologists assess from around age seven, once a child has had real reading instruction. Younger children showing warning signs should start structured help straight away; the response to that help becomes valuable evidence if a formal assessment follows later.

Can a dyslexia assessment be done online?

Formal psycho-educational testing is usually done in person, though some psychologists now offer valid online administration of parts of it. An informal reading and spelling assessment works well online: listening to a child read, probing spelling, and testing sound-level skills all transfer naturally to a live one-to-one video session.

Will an assessment get my child extra time in exams?

It can, but only if the certificate meets your board’s requirements. In India, boards recognise specific learning disabilities and grant provisions such as extra time, and each board specifies who may issue the certificate. Ask your school which certificate it needs before you book the assessment, not after.

Dr. V.S. Gayathri is a Certified Dyslexia Therapist, an Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist, and the founder of Flourishing Kids. She has delivered over 4,000 hours of one-to-one reading and spelling intervention, helping children across multiple countries build stronger literacy skills. If you are unsure where to start with an assessment, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.