This is Why Timed Tests Aren’t Helpful for Children with Dyslexia

One request I’ve made every year to Harry’s teacher is to limit, or avoid, timed testing because he freezes under pressure.

Things were easier when Harry was in primary school. Now that he’s in secondary school, he comes up against testing throughout the school year.

Have you ever seen the 1993 movie Groundhog Day? If you haven’t, it’s well worth watching. A weather presenter inexplicably lives the same day repeatedly, and his frustration is excruciating to watch. It’s a funny movie premise, but when settling my son into a new class, I find myself having to repeat to each teacher why timed tests aren’t helpful for dyslexia.

This is why timed tests aren’t helpful for dyslexia

Teachers often use timed tests at the beginning of the term to get a benchmark for the student’s ability to see the progress the student makes throughout the year. It sounds like a great idea, but for a student with dyslexia, especially those with slow processing, it is the equivalent of making them walk on hot coals to find out if they still get blisters on their feet. Starting the term off in this way may set a dyslexic child up for failure.

I’m a parent, not a teacher, but I’ve read around the topic of dyslexia for years. A paper called Timed Essay Writing: Implications for High-Stakes Tests studied a group of young people who had dyslexia, and a similarly aged group who did not. The researchers asked these students to write a timed 30-minute essay. The results were not a surprise.

“…only 71% of the writers with dyslexia completed their essays, whereas 91% of writers without dyslexia finished in time.”

When they analysed the performance of individual dyslexic students, they discovered each student needed a targeted approach. A general intervention, such as giving everyone a laptop for the test, was not the most helpful solution. They found:

• Some students needed to use audio text

• Some needed screen readers

• Others access to a spellchecker

• Some needed a reader/writer and extra time

• A few had to give their presentation verbally.

Knowing what works best for each student is the key to success in gathering meaningful information from testing.

Anxiety caused by exams and timed tests

The British Psychological Society journal the Psychologist carried an interesting article by Dave Putwain, which looked at the impact test stress had on young people.

I particularly liked the quote about the lack of research into examination stress.

“Perhaps it reflects a tendency to trivialise the stress and anxiety experienced by children and young people over tests, examinations, and other forms of assessment, and to regard their experiences as somehow less meaningful than those of adults (see Denscombe, 2000).

In other words, we may be guilty of saying to our children, Suck it up. We had to do exams and test; you should too. It is, however, essential to look at what the test aims to achieve. Can the same results be obtained in other ways?

What is no other way of testing is available?

It is important to help your child learn how to cope with testing and exam stress, as these are sometimes unavoidable. According to Holly Hartley on The Rediscovery of Me, the signs your child may be struggling are:

• Feelings of not being able to cope with revision

• Feeling pressure from home or school

• Fear of failing the exam or not getting the grades needed

• Negative self-talk such as “I can’t do this,” or “I am going to fail”

• Loss of perspective, thinking that their whole life will fall apart if they are not a success in the exams

• Fear of letting people down

• Physical symptoms: inability to sleep, over-eating or under-eating, symptoms of anxiety

If this sounds like your child, discuss with the teacher getting targeted support. It may make all the difference. Harry gets reader/writer for his tests. With that in place, he can focus on finding the answer to the question rather than trying to figure out what the words say.

Perfectionism may be part of the problem

Many children with dyslexia develop perfectionist traits as a coping mechanism. Ellen Hendriksen, PhD, whose podcast is the Savvy Psychologist, says,

‘Contrary to the name, most perfectionists aren’t driven by the pursuit of perfection; they’re driven by the avoidance of failure. Being a perfectionist isn’t about being perfect; it’s about never being good enough.’

I look at how you can help a child deal with perfectionism in this blog post.

How can you support your child?

1. Discuss the ways of testing that work best for your child with their teacher. You may like to share this resource guide on dyslexia written by the New Hampshire Department of Education. Pages 39-43 cover ideas a teacher can employ in the classroom. https://nh.dyslexiaida.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2016/03/DYSLEXIA-resource-guide.pdf

2. Encourage activities your child enjoys outside of school and help them keep a balanced approach to study

3. Celebrate your child’s achievements along the way and help them set their own goals

Does your dyslexic child struggle with timed testing?

If you want to know how I taught my son to read and spell in 30 minutes a day, here are my affilate links to All About Learning. I hope you find All About Spelling and All About Reading equally helpful.

This literacy programme is based on the Orton Gillingham approach. Learn more about this here.

If your child also struggles to learn the multiplication tables, check out this blog post on how using stories will help them remember the facts.

Speechify is an app that can help dyslexic children as it reads online text. Here is my affiliate link.