04 Nov Dyslexia Testing in Mexico City
Gold-Standard Dyslexia Assessment in Mexico City
If a reading or writing difficulty exists, it will be identified by our specialist Psychologists. Every assessment is designed to determine the cause of unexplained learning difficulties in international school students in Mexico City. Where dyslexia is present, it is diagnosed against DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 criteria, and the report provides the evidence required to support appropriate classroom and examination accommodations.
If the difficulty lies elsewhere (ADHD, a working memory or processing speed deficit, a co-occurring mathematics disorder, or anxiety) it is identified, diagnosed, and translated into evidence based recommendations for the classroom, together with exam accommodations such as extra time, supported by the assessment findings.
An International School student in Mexico City does not leave our process with an unanswered question. They leave it with a name for the difficulty, the evidence the school and the board need, and an action plan that will have a direct, positive effect on their future academic success.
The same story is heard repeatedly from international school families across Mexico City. Their child is bright, articulate and intellectually capable, yet reading and writing remain persistent obstacles. They explain ideas with clarity in conversation, but their written work fails to reflect their ability. Reading is possible, but it is slow, effortful and disproportionately demanding for a student of their potential.
We often find that lots of International School students in Mexico City have gone undiagnosed for years because their intelligence allows them to compensate. They rely on context and vocabulary instead of efficient decoding, memorise words rather than develop accurate spelling, and create strategies that conceal the underlying difficulty. Those strategies eventually fail as the reading and writing demands of IB, IGCSE and A Level increase, and academic performance no longer reflects the student’s true ability.
Key Takeaways
- Comprehensive dyslexia testing in Mexico City for international school students
- Assessments conducted by HCPC-registered Educational Psychologists
- Diagnoses made using internationally recognised DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 criteria
- Identifies dyslexia and related conditions including ADHD, dyscalculia & anxiety
- Differentiates dyslexia from English as an Additional Language (EAL)difficulties
- Asessment instruments including WISC-V, WAIS-IV, WIAT, CTOPP-2 & MOXO
- Defensible diagnostic reports with classroom recommendations and exam benefits
- Reports accepted by IB, Cambridge, Pearson & College Board
- Recommended accommodations include extra time in exams
Diagnosing Dyslexia
In many cases, the underlying cause is dyslexia. At Global Education Testing Mexico City, we identify and diagnose dyslexia against recognised clinical criteria, providing clear diagnostic conclusions, evidence-based educational recommendations, and the documentation required to support appropriate classroom and examination accommodations. Specific learning disorders affecting reading and writing are common, with prevalence estimates indicating they affect up to one in ten students.
Signs of Dyslexia
You may have noticed the following signs of dyslexia in your child:
- Strong performance across most subjects that don’t involve reading or writing
- Accurate reading but at a slower pace
- Spoken answers that are consistently stronger than written work.
- Persistent spelling difficulties that do not reflect their intelligence or ability.
- Better understanding of text when it is read aloud
- Reluctance to read out loud
- Difficulty finishing exams in the given time
- A need to reread passages several times
- Good progress in the early years of school, followed by a decline as they get older
- Disproportionate frustration or anxiety around reading and writing
What prompts most families to seek a dyslexia assessment in Mexico City is concern that an unidentified reading difficulty is limiting their child’s academic progress. Reading and writing underpin every subject, not just English.
When a literacy difficulty goes unrecognised, it affects performance across the curriculum, particularly in examinations where students must process written information quickly and produce accurate written responses under time pressure.
A specific learning disorder affecting reading should never be the factor that limits an otherwise capable student’s educational opportunities. Dyslexia can be identified through a comprehensive assessment, and once diagnosed, schools can implement appropriate classroom support and examination accommodations to ensure the student’s performance reflects their ability rather than their reading difficulty.
Understanding Dyslexia – Deep Dive
Developmental dyslexia is a specific learning disorder affecting reading and spelling. It is recognised as a neurodevelopmental disorder under both DSM-5-TR and ICD-11. Dyslexia is unrelated to intelligence and is not caused by poor teaching, limited motivation or inadequate educational opportunity.
Its core feature is a weakness in phonological processing: the ability to recognise, retain and manipulate the speech sounds that make up words and to map those sounds efficiently onto written language. Fluent reading depends on this process becoming rapid and automatic. In dyslexia, that automaticity does not develop fully, leaving reading slower, more effortful and less accurate, while spelling often remains persistently weak.
This explains why many students with dyslexia have strong reasoning skills, sophisticated vocabulary and excellent verbal comprehension, yet continue to struggle with reading and written expression. Their intellectual ability is intact. The difficulty lies in the cognitive processes that support efficient reading.
In many able students, intelligence masks the underlying disorder for years by allowing them to compensate until academic demands exceed those compensatory strategies.
Dyslexia affects approximately one in ten people, making it one of the most common neurodevelopmental conditions. Within the international school community in Mexico City, students with dyslexia are found across every year group. It frequently co-occurs with ADHD, dyscalculia and, over time, anxiety arising from the sustained effort required to achieve results that do not reflect the student’s true ability.
Our International Gold Standard Psychoeducational Evaluations
Every assessment by Global Education Testing Mexico City is conducted in English by an HCPC-registered Educational Psychologist using internationally recognised, gold-standard assessment instruments.
The assessment is tailored to each students unique profile and includes:
- Cognitive ability: WISC-V (under 18) or WAIS (18+) to measure intellectual functioning, working memory and processing speed.
- Academic attainment: WIAT to assess reading accuracy, reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling and written expression.
- Phonological processing: CTOPP-2 to evaluate phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid naming, the core cognitive processes associated with dyslexia.
- Visual processing and memory: Taylor Complex Figure Test.
- Attention and executive functioning: SNAP-IV, Conners rating scales, Executive Skills questionnaires and the MOXO Continuous Performance Test to identify or exclude co-occurring ADHD.
- Emotional functioning: Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank to explore the emotional impact of persistent learning difficulties.
By integrating these findings, we distinguish dyslexia from other conditions that can present with similar symptoms, including ADHD, language disorders, general reading delay and the normal challenges of learning in English as an additional language.
You receive a detailed diagnostic report, typically exceeding 20 pages, containing:
- A diagnosis based on DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 criteria.
- A clear explanation of the assessment findings.
- Recommendations for classroom support and targeted interventions.
- Examination accommodation recommendations supported by the evidence.
- Practical guidance for parents, teachers and school SENCOs.
Our reports are written to support decision-making. They provide clear diagnostic conclusions together with practical recommendations that International schools in Mexico City can implement immediately.
What changes when Dyslexia is diagnosed
For international school students in Mexico City who have been struggling, the change after diagnosis can be dramatic. A diagnosis unlocks the right teaching, the right interventions and the examination access arrangements that allow the student to demonstrate what they actually know.
For an already able student, the accommodations take them to the top. A student sitting just below the highest grade, held back by the speed of their reading rather than the limit of their understanding, reaches it once extra time allows them to read, think and write at the level they have always been capable of. The mark was always there. The reading difficulty was capping it.
For a student whose reading has been a genuine barrier, the change is often from failing or near-failing to competent. The ability was never missing. Access was.
Targeted Dyslexia Intervention Strategies for International School Students in Mexico City
Our reports translate directly into practical classroom recommendations tailored to the student’s cognitive and academic profile. These include:
- Structured, multisensory literacy intervention
- Written instructions alongside verbal instructions
- Reduced reading demands where reading is not the skill being assessed
- Text-to-speech for reading-intensive subjects
- Speech-to-text for extended written work
- Pre-teaching of subject-specific vocabulary
- Additional time for classroom assessments
- Use of a laptop with spellcheck for written work
In IB, iGCSE, A Level and College Board examinations, a diagnosis of dyslexia qualifies the student for examination access arrangements. Depending on the student’s profile, these may include:
- Extra time in all exams
- Supervised rest breaks
- Separate or small group examination room
- Reader or computer reader
- Use of a laptop
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text technology
- Use of a prompter where attention and task focus are affected
The exact arrangements depend on the student’s assessment profile and the regulations of the examination board. Every report from Global Education Testing Mexico City is written to the evidential framework required by the relevant examination authority.
EAL or Dyslexia, and Why It Matters in Mexico City
Many international school students in Mexico City are multilingual. English may be the language of instruction, while a different language is spoken at home and another in the wider community. As a result, students are often learning and being assessed across multiple languages.
For this reason, English as an Additional Language (EAL) can closely resemble dyslexia. Slow reading, spelling errors, weak written expression and reduced reading fluency are common to both. One of the most important judgements an Educational Psychologist makes is determining whether these difficulties reflect a Specific Learning Disorder or the normal process of acquiring English.
The distinction lies beneath the surface. Students whose difficulties arise solely from learning English typically demonstrate intact phonological processing, age-appropriate cognitive skills and no characteristic dyslexic pattern on cognitive assessment. Students with dyslexia show the opposite: the underlying cognitive profile remains consistent regardless of language and is reflected across measures of phonological processing, working memory, processing speed and developmental history.
This distinction cannot be made with a screener. Screeners measure performance. A comprehensive psychoeducational assessment examines the cognitive processes that explain that performance, allowing an HCPC-registered Educational Psychologist to distinguish dyslexia from second-language acquisition with confidence.
Exam Access Arrangements after Diagnosis
For international school students in Mexico City, the diagnostic report is the foundation of the access arrangements process. The report provides the evidence required by schools and examination boards when applying for approved accommodations.
Pearson Edexcel IGCSE and International A Level
- Available arrangements include 25–50% extra time, supervised rest breaks, a separate room, a reader, a computer reader, a scribe and a laptop.
Cambridge International IGCSE, AS and A Level
- Applications are submitted by the Exams Officer in conjunction with the SENCO.
- Cambridge accepts reports meeting the equivalent evidential standard, supporting arrangements including extra time, rest breaks, a separate room, reader support, a scribe and use of a laptop.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP)
- Applications are submitted by the school’s IB Coordinator under the Inclusive Assessment Arrangements framework.
- Approved arrangements include up to 50% additional time, reading support, scribing, prompting, supervised rest breaks, text-to-speech, speech-to-text and other assistive technology. Where approved, accommodations may also extend to Internal Assessments, the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge.
College Board SAT and AP
- Applications are made through the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) process.
- Approved arrangements may include extended time, additional breaks, a separate or small-group room, a reader, a scribe and assistive technology.
Our diagnostic report can also support applications for accommodations in a wide range of university admissions and professional entrance examinations, including the UCAT, GAMSAT, LNAT, LSAT, GRE and GMAT, together with admissions assessments used by many universities worldwide.
How the Assessment Works
A dyslexia diagnosis that international schools in Mexico City and the major examination boards will recognise must be based on a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment conducted by a qualified Educational Psychologist. Global Education Testing assessments are completed by HCPC-registered Educational Psychologists, with reports written to meet and exceed the evidential requirements of the International Baccalaureate, Pearson Edexcel, Cambridge International and the College Board.
Every Global Education Testing report in Mexico City is backed by our acceptance guarantee for IB, IGCSE, A Level and College Board examination access arrangements.
If There Is a Problem, We Will Find It
That is our commitment.
If an international school student in Mexico City is struggling with reading or writing and the reason remains unclear, our assessment identifies the cause. If it is dyslexia, we diagnose it against DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 criteria, and the report authorises the examination and classroom accommodations to which the student is entitled. If the underlying difficulty is ADHD, a working memory or processing speed weakness, dyscalculia or another co-occurring condition, that is also identified and diagnosed.
No student leaves with unanswered questions. Every family leaves with a diagnosis, the evidence their school and examination board require, and a clear plan for what happens next.
Global Education Testing Mexico City
Our assessment includes the complete psychoeducational evaluation, the full diagnostic report, evidence-based recommendations and a post-assessment feedback session with the Educational Psychologist. The entire process is completed in less than 21 days.
We can coordinate directly with your school’s SENCO to obtain school reports, teacher observations and work samples, removing the administrative burden from parents.
Before testing, we conduct a comprehensive parent consultation. After the report is issued, your Educational Psychologist provides a detailed feedback session explaining every finding, every recommendation and the next steps.
We guarantee acceptance of our reports for examination access arrangements for the International Baccalaureate, IGCSE, A Level and College Board. Every report is written in English, as required by the major examination boards, and prepared to the evidential framework of the relevant board.
Parent feedback sessions can be delivered in your preferred language because understanding your child’s assessment should never depend on a second language.
Private and Confidential
Global Education Testing Mexico City is an independent private practice. We are not affiliated with any school, examination board or government authority. Your assessment, report and personal information remain confidential and are shared only with your consent.
The report belongs to you. You decide who receives it and when.
Where appropriate, we can also prepare two versions of the report: a school report containing the diagnosis and recommendations required by the SENCO to implement support and apply for examination access arrangements, and a comprehensive parent report containing the full clinical findings and diagnostic detail.
Alexander Bentley-Sutherland is the CEO of Global Education Testing, the leading provider of Learning Development Testing tailored specifically for the International and Private School community worldwide.