How to take the dyslexia test with your child
Plan about 10 minutes somewhere quiet. Sit next to your child so you can time the colour game and keep them going.
- 1
Choose the age
Pick your child's age group. Scores are compared with what is typical for that age.
- 2
Check the sound
Turn the volume up and play the test sound. Every game starts with a spoken instruction.
- 3
Play the six games
Let your child answer on their own. Do not correct them during the games; the aim is to see what is easy and what is effortful.
- 4
Time the colour race
When the grid of colours appears, press Start, let your child name every colour aloud, and press Stop at the end. Then mark how many they got wrong.
- 5
Read the profile
See the strongest skill and the focus skill, and read what the result means for next steps.
What the free dyslexia test checks
Dyslexia is a difficulty with learning to read and spell words accurately and fluently. Research points to a small set of underlying skills that predict how easily a child learns to read, and the test has one game for each.
Hearing the sounds inside words, knowing which letters spell them and sounding out new words are the core; rapid naming speed is linked to reading fluency. The two remaining games, spotting look-alike letters and remembering spoken numbers, add context but are weaker signals on their own.2,3,4,5
The six games and the skill each one checks| Game | Skill | What your child does |
|---|
| Odd Sound Out | Phonological awareness | Hears three words and picks the one that does not rhyme, or starts differently |
|---|
| First Letter | Letter-sound knowledge | Hears a word and picks the letter or letters it starts with |
|---|
| Alien Words | Decoding | Hears a made-up word and finds how it is spelled |
|---|
| Colour Race | Rapid naming | Names 40 colour dots aloud as fast as possible |
|---|
| Mirror Letters | Visual discrimination | Finds every b among d, p and q (and similar sets) |
|---|
| Number Echo | Short-term memory | Repeats spoken number sequences in order |
|---|
How to read the dyslexia test result
Each skill is shown as Strong, On track or Needs practice, compared with a rough expectation for the child's age. The profile also names the strongest skill and the focus skill, which is where daily practice starts.
If two or more of the four core skills (sounds, letters, decoding and naming speed) need practice, the result says so plainly and suggests talking to your child's school about a full assessment. A single low score is common and can come from a tired moment or an unfamiliar game.
Because the test has no clinical norms, it cannot say how far behind a child is. It is best used to decide whether to ask for an assessment, and what to practise in the meantime.
What a dyslexia screening test cannot do
No online dyslexia test can diagnose dyslexia. A diagnosis comes from a full assessment by a qualified professional, such as an educational psychologist or a specialist teacher-assessor, who looks at reading history, standardised tests and other explanations such as hearing, vision or teaching.
Dyslexia is listed in the World Health Organization's classification as a developmental learning disorder with impairment in reading. A screening like this one can point to signs; only an assessment can say whether those signs add up to dyslexia.6,7
After the dyslexia test: what helps
Across controlled trials with struggling readers, the approach with the most consistent effect was systematic phonics: explicit teaching of letter-sound links and blending sounds into words. Short, regular practice with spaced review works better than long, occasional sessions.
The Dyslexia Steps program is built on those findings. It starts from the focus skill in the test profile and brings back the letters and words a child still finds hard. The first 5 levels of every world are free with an account.
Adults who recognise these difficulties in themselves can take the dyslexia test for adults.8,9
