prefer to listen? |
Introducing and understanding the term Spiky Profile
Today, we will cover the meanings of a spiky profile when we test for dyslexia and other learning difficulties to understand the definitions with some examples.
If you have had an assessment for dyslexia or have been researching it you may have come across the term ‘spiky profile’ and wondered what it means. Well, wonder no more!
We as people have our own strengths and unique personalities and characteristics. It is what makes
you YOU! It means that we are all good at different things and have to work harder at others.
When we test a person for dyslexia we will look at a number of different areas (more on this later! ) and this builds a picture of their ability in different areas of learning and understanding. When this is put into a visual presentation it can sometimes look like a mountain range, with peaks and troughs – aka “a spiky profile”.
What gets tested and why?
- Underlying ability with verbal and visual information
- Areas of Cognition – the skills that help us learn and remember information
- Academic Attainment – skills developed in the areas of reading ability and comprehension, writing and spelling
So why do we see different spiky profile scores?
We see different scores on a ‘spiky profie’ because every person’s skill set will be different due to internal and external influences. Internal influences include your general ability at understanding language and visual information and external means your education, home and cultural experince, extra support, health to name but a few! One person will excel in certain areas but could find other skills difficult to develop so have a reduced score and the inflences in your life will play a huge role in your profile, leading to the spiky appearance!
The spike Profile will be made up of the scores in the following areas that we test for when looking for dyslexia and other disabilities.
- Underlying Ability
- Verbal Ability – understanding words, the relationships, and themes in language
- Visual Ability – making connections, links and working with visual information and space
- Spelling – spelling words on their own
- Reading efficency – how accuratly we can recall words at speed
- Visual Processing Speed – The speed you can process simple visual information at speed
- Working Memory – How much information we can hold, store, and manipulate
- Phonological Memory – How much verbal information we can hold and repeat
- Free Writing – how we express ourselves in writing
- Reading Comprehension – what we understand from written text
- Verbal Ability – understanding words, the relationships, and themes in language
- Visual Ability – making connections, links and working with visual information and space
- Spelling – spelling words on their own
- Single Word reading – reading without a time limit
- Visual Processing Speed – The speed you can process simple visual information at speed
- Working Memory – How much information we can hold, store, and manipulate
- Phonological Awareness – Awareness of sounds that words make
- Phonological Memory – How much verbal information we can hold and repeat
- Free Writing – how we express ourselves in writing
- Reading Comprehension – what we understand from written text
Is it bad to have a spiky profile? No!
If fact, a spiky profile is expected (and looked for!) in a person who has a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia.
It means some areas are not as strong as other abilities and skills you have. If these areas are in your memory, processing, ponological awarentess ect (cognition – aka parts in your brain that help you to think and learn) then it helps us understand why you may struggle with learning to spell and read.
How it helps me to get better at these things?
It can help you understand why you struggle with some things and how your strengths will help you develop. And the more you know about your own difficulties the more you can develop your own learning and strategies!
The profile you show will also be used in your report to make sure the recommendations made are right for you, rather than just general.
Two example profiles that are different to each other
How do I know if I should get assessed? Just like the assessment our screening document is designed to look for spikes in your answers and can help us decided if an assessment is right for you. You can take our Free screening here –
You can take a Free screening Test here