About LADS Plus

What is LADS Plus?

LADS Plus (Lucid Adult Dyslexia Screening – Plus Version) is a digitised test designed to screen for indications that may be associated with a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia. It is used with persons of 15 years and older. It can be used to assess individuals or large groups in any setting whether educational or employment related.

Why use LADS Plus?

Administration of LADS Plus does not require specialist teacher or assessor training. The test is self-administered, and all subtests are adaptive which makes the assessment swift and efficient and reduces administrative load. LADS Plus can usually be completed in approximately 25 minutes.

It must be emphasised that LADS Plus is not a full diagnostic test and so does not purport to provide a definitive assessment of dyslexia. Rather, it provides a categorisation (by way of colour coded bars) of each subtest test into three groups:

  • Green: No indication of dyslexia.
  • Amber: Weak indication of dyslexia.
  • Red: Strong indication of dyslexia.

The report also includes an overall category to describe the probability of dyslexia:

1)      Low probability of dyslexia

2)      Borderline

3)      Moderate probability of dyslexia

4)      High probability of dyslexia

Features of LADS Plus

  • Fully digitised 
  • Assess individuals or large groups 
  • Appropriate for any educational or employment related setting 
  • Takes just 25 minutes
  • Reports are colour coded to indicate probability of dyslexia

Dyslexia in adults

Compensation strategies that adolescents and adults develop in order to cope with literacy tasks, can make it difficult to determine whether a person has dyslexia. Educational experience can also mask specific difficulties in adolescents and adults that might be more apparent in children. However, the cognitive difficulties that underpin dyslexia – particularly in phonological processing, lexical access and working memory – are much more fundamental and difficult to compensate. The vast majority of adults with dyslexia display difficulties in these areas.