Diagnostic Assessment for Literacy & Math
Understand Where Your Child Is Starting
Every student has a unique combination of strengths, developing skills and areas for growth.
A diagnostic assessment helps identify your child's current skills and provides the information needed to determine appropriate instructional starting points and next steps.
At Fireflies Learning, assessment is not simply about identifying what a student can or cannot do. It helps me understand what your child knows, where there may be gaps, how they respond to different types of instruction, and which skills need the most attention. These observations provide valuable information that guides my instructional decisions and helps me determine how to best support your child's learning and skill development.
Diagnostic assessment: $70
Why Start With a Diagnostic Assessment?
Before beginning individualized instruction, it is important to understand your child's current level of performance.
A diagnostic assessment can help identify:
Current skills and areas of strength
Skills that may need additional development
Gaps in foundational knowledge
Appropriate instructional starting points
Skills that may need review or reinforcement
Areas that may require more targeted instruction
Priorities for an individualized learning plan
This information helps ensure that lessons are purposeful, appropriately challenging and responsive to your child's needs.
What Does the Assessment Include?
The specific assessment activities are selected based on your child's age, grade, concerns and the area being assessed.
Depending on your child's needs, a literacy assessment may include areas such as:
Phonemic Awareness
Understanding and working with the individual sounds in spoken words.
Phonics & Decoding
Understanding sound-symbol relationships and applying phonics knowledge to read unfamiliar words.
Reading Accuracy & Fluency
Looking at how accurately, automatically and fluently your child reads connected text.
Spelling
Examining how your child applies phonics, spelling patterns and word knowledge when spelling words.
Vocabulary, Language & Comprehension
Considering vocabulary, background knowledge, language comprehension and understanding of what your child reads.
Morphology
Exploring knowledge of meaningful word parts such as bases, prefixes and suffixes when appropriate.
Writing
Looking at areas such as sentence construction, spelling and written expression when appropriate.
Math Assessment
Math assessment looks at the skills and understanding your child has developed and helps identify areas for further instruction, practice or reinforcement.
Depending on your child's grade level and learning needs, assessment may include:
Number Sense — understanding numbers, quantity, place value and relationships between numbers
Operations & Computation — addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, including accuracy and efficiency
Math Fluency — developing accuracy and automaticity with foundational number facts and skills
Fractions & Decimals — understanding quantities, relationships and operations with fractions and decimals, as appropriate
Problem Solving — applying mathematical knowledge to solve problems and explain mathematical thinking
Mathematical Reasoning — understanding concepts and explaining how and why a strategy works
The assessment helps identify not only what your child can do, but also how they approach mathematical tasks, where misconceptions or gaps may be present, and which skills should be prioritized during instruction.
Assessment findings are used to develop individualized math instruction that builds on your child's existing knowledge and targets the skills they are ready to develop next.Assessment-Informed Instruction
Assessment should directly inform teaching.
The information gathered during the diagnostic assessment is used to determine where instruction should begin and what should be taught next.
Rather than providing the same program to every student, I use assessment information to individualize instruction around the student's current skills.
As students learn, assessment information continues to guide instructional decisions.
This creates an ongoing cycle:
Assess → Analyze → Teach → Monitor → Adjust
Assessment helps determine what a student needs to learn.
Instruction provides explicit teaching and guided practice.
Progress monitoring shows how the student is responding to instruction.
The information gathered then helps determine the next instructional steps.
Ongoing Progress Monitoring
Assessment continues throughout instruction.
At the end of each lesson, student progress is recorded in a Lesson Tracker, documenting the skills taught, student performance and areas that may need additional practice or review.
Every 10th lesson, a more formal Progress Check-In is completed to review the student's progress, identify areas of continued need and determine whether instructional priorities should be adjusted.
This provides an ongoing record of learning and helps ensure that instruction continues to respond to your child's development.
Families can also gain a clearer understanding of the skills their child is developing and the progress they are making.
What Parents Can Expect
A Clear Starting Point
You will gain a better understanding of your child's current skills and areas that may need further development.
Individualized Recommendations
Assessment findings are used to determine appropriate instructional priorities and next steps.
Purposeful Instruction
Lessons are planned around the skills your child needs rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.
Ongoing Communication
Progress is documented throughout instruction, with a formal Progress Check-In every 10th lesson.
Who May Benefit From a Diagnostic Assessment?
A diagnostic assessment may be helpful if you have questions about your child's:
Early literacy development
Phonemic awareness
Phonics and decoding
Reading accuracy or fluency
Spelling
Vocabulary or comprehension
Writing
Math skills
Progress in relation to grade-level expectations
Foundational skills that may not yet be secure
It can also be helpful when a student has received previous literacy or math support and you want a clearer understanding of what skills have been developed and what should be addressed next.
A student does not need to have a diagnosis or identified learning difficulty to benefit from assessment.
A Diagnostic Assessment Is Not a Formal Psychoeducational Assessment
A Fireflies Learning diagnostic assessment is an instructional assessment designed to identify current academic skills and guide teaching.
It is not a medical, psychological or psychoeducational assessment and does not provide a diagnosis.
If assessment findings suggest that a student may benefit from additional professional assessment or support, I can discuss those observations with the family and recommend that they speak with an appropriate qualified professional.
Ready to Learn More About Your Child's Learning Needs?
If you are interested in a diagnostic assessment, complete the Private Teaching Inquiry Form.
I'll review the information you provide and contact you by email to discuss your child's needs, the assessment process and appropriate next steps.
$70 Diagnostic Assessment
Fireflies Learning • Oakville, Ontario • Virtual Options Available
