A specialty focus
Understanding Learning Differences
When a child works hard and the results still do not show up in their reading, writing, or math, the issue is rarely effort. The key is understanding the underlying cause or causes. A comprehensive evaluation explores both academic skills and the cognitive processes driving them, giving you a clear picture of how your child learns and how best to support them.
The signs parents notice
Something isn't adding up, and it usually shows in one subject before the others. Reading that stays slow long after it should have clicked. Writing that takes an hour for a paragraph your child could have told you out loud in a minute. Math facts that go in and don't stay.
What those have in common is effort. Your child is working, often harder than anyone around them realizes, and it isn't converting into anything that shows. That gap between how bright they clearly are and what comes back on the page is the thing worth looking into.
Learning differences assessment is available in person at my Pasadena office, in your home in the Los Angeles area, or remotely via a secure telehealth platform for any student in California.
The three learning differences
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia
Each one is a specific, brain-based difference with its own signature, and each calls for different testing. Here's what they look like, and what I measure.
Reading
Dyslexia
What you might be seeing: Slow, effortful reading that doesn't match how bright your child clearly is. Difficulty sounding out unfamiliar words, and spelling that won't stick. A student who can discuss ideas brilliantly but avoids reading aloud at all costs.
What testing covers: Two children can read at the same slow pace for completely different reasons, and the reason changes what helps. I test how a child hears and manipulates the individual sounds inside words, as well as how their brain visualizes and remembers written word patterns. By assessing these skills alongside decoding, spelling, and their response to school instruction, we find the exact root of the reading struggle.
Writing
Dysgraphia
What you might be seeing: A student who can express sophisticated ideas out loud with ease, but breaks down in organization, spelling, and legibility the moment those ideas have to go on paper. Handwriting is laborious to produce, and the effort that takes is why written work gets avoided and why assignments are late or missing.
What testing covers: The gap between what a student can say and what they can get onto paper is the thing to measure here, so I measure both ends of it. This means looking at both the motor and language sides: handwriting, spelling, grammar conventions, and the overall quality of their written expression. I assess how they organize their thoughts, construct sentences, and whether their ideas survive the transition from a single sentence to a full essay.
Math
Dyscalculia
What you might be seeing: Math facts and procedures that do not stick despite repeated practice, and difficulty understanding basic concepts like place value or estimating. You might also notice your child struggling to recognize mathematical patterns, solve word problems, or remember the correct order of steps required to complete a calculation.
What testing covers: Rather than just looking at whether a student gets a math problem right or wrong, I evaluate the core cognitive skills required for math. This means testing their foundational number sense, which is their intuitive understanding of quantities and how they relate to one another. I also assess working memory, visual spatial processing, and mathematical reasoning to identify exactly where the breakdown occurs so we can target the specific concepts they need to move forward.
The bigger picture
Understanding how learning profiles interact
While a learning difference can certainly exist on its own, it is also very common for multiple challenges to overlap. For instance, dyslexia and attention differences frequently co-occur. When a student has to work twice as hard to decode every word, they have very little mental energy left to stay focused. Anxiety can also develop, often as a natural response to years of struggling without a clear explanation.
Giftedness adds another layer to this dynamic. In twice-exceptional students, high intellectual ability can mask a learning difference for years. Strong vocabulary and reasoning skills allow them to compensate just enough that their reading or writing difficulties are easily mistaken for carelessness or inattention.
Testing for only one specific skill might catch the immediate issue but miss the broader context. Evaluating learning differences alongside attention, anxiety, and cognitive strengths is what ensures we get an accurate picture, leading to highly specific, school-ready recommendations.
How I assess for it
How the assessment looks at learning differences
A learning difference shows up as a gap between real ability and a specific skill, so I measure both the skills directly and the processing underneath them:
Reading
Decoding, reading fluency, and comprehension.
Writing & spelling
Spelling, handwriting, and getting ideas onto the page.
Math
Number sense, calculation, and math reasoning.
Underlying processing
Phonological processing, orthographic processing, processing speed, and working memory.
This is a deep dive, not a screening. Whichever of the three is in play, I test the specific processes involved.
It's one evaluation, not a standalone dyslexia test. See how the comprehensive assessment works
Common questions about learning differences
What ages do you assess?
I work with students age 7 on up, through the school years and into college, as long as they're currently enrolled. If you're not sure whether your student is a fit, reach out and we'll talk it through.
How do you tell a learning difference from a student who's simply behind?
Two key factors separate them. The first is how the student responds to targeted support. A student who is simply behind will usually catch up once they receive focused instruction, whereas a student with a learning difference will continue to struggle because their challenge is rooted in how their brain processes information. The second factor is the pattern of their cognitive and academic scores. While a general delay typically shows up as consistently low scores across all areas, a learning difference reveals an uneven or "spiky" profile. This means the student may score average to superior in most areas, but show a distinct, localized deficit in one specific skill. Recognizing this unique pattern is key to identifying a true learning difference.
What is nonverbal learning disability (NVLD), and can you diagnose it?
NVLD is a profile marked by a big gap between strong verbal skills and weaker nonverbal, visual-spatial, and motor skills. These students are often highly articulate, with sophisticated vocabularies. What's hard is the nonverbal side: organizing physical space, interpreting charts and graphs, reading body language and facial expressions, and handling spatially demanding math like geometry. NVLD isn't currently a formal, standalone diagnosis in the DSM-5, so it can't be 'diagnosed' in the traditional psychiatric sense. I identify it as a cognitive profile instead, by looking at how the processing scores relate: advanced verbal reasoning alongside significantly lower visual-spatial, spatial-relations, and visual-motor scores.
Will the report support school services or an IEP?
Yes. A written psychoeducational report is the document schools, IEP teams, and 504 coordinators use to establish eligibility and build out accommodations. I write reports that meet those standards and hold up in educational settings, including at the college level, where disability services offices have their own requirements.
Can you assess for dysgraphia and dyscalculia too?
Yes, and often in the same evaluation as reading. A student who struggles with one of these frequently struggles with another, and testing for them separately is how the second one gets missed. For each one I test the specific skill and the processing underneath it. If you already know which one you are worried about, that is a fine place to start, but I will not stop there if the data points somewhere else.
What does an identified learning difference actually open up for my child?
At school it gives you the legal grounds to ask for accommodations under a 504 plan or an IEP. Extended time, speech-to-text, less homework, specialized instruction. Those follow the student into college entrance exams and into university itself. The other half of it matters just as much. When a student finds out the struggle comes from something specific and identified, rather than from not being smart enough or not trying hard enough, it lifts a real weight of shame.
Other areas the assessment covers
Twice-Exceptional & Gifted
For gifted students who also have a learning, attention, or developmental difference. I assess for both, so nothing is missed.
ADHD & Executive Functioning
A close look at attention, focus, and the planning-and-follow-through skills that shape how school actually goes.
Autism
A careful, strength-based autism evaluation set within the whole-child picture.
Let's look at what's actually going on.
A free 20-minute consultation is a good place to start, enough to understand what you're seeing and whether a comprehensive assessment makes sense as a next step.
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