Understanding Dyslexia:
Dyslexia is a common learning difference that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. It is a lifelong challenge which impacts learning and daily life.
Common Signs and Symptoms
Early Indicators
Phonological Awareness
Difficulties identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words. This often manifests in trouble breaking words down into individual sounds.
Academic Challenges
Reading and Decoding
Slow or inaccurate reading of words, often guessing based on context or initial letters. Difficulty with spelling consistency is also a common marker.
Cognitive Patterns
Working Memory
Challenges with remembering multi-step instructions or sequences. This may affect organizational skills and the ability to plan written work effectively.
What is Dyslexia?
The British Dyslexia Association describes dyslexia as a specific learning difficulty which primarily affects reading and writing skills. However, dyslexia can also affect information processing skills, meaning that many dyslexic people may have difficulty processing but also remembering information they see and hear. This can affect their learning and the acquisition of literacy skills. Dyslexia can also impact on other areas such as organisational skills.
Many dyslexic people show strengths in areas such as reasoning and in visual and creative fields.
Reference:
BDA, 2025, https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexia/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia
Delphi Definition of Dyslexia
The new definition of dyslexia is published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and the Dyslexia Journal.
Dyslexia is a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling.
In dyslexia, some or all aspects of literacy attainment are weak in relation to age, standard teaching and instruction, and level of other attainments.
Across all languages, difficulties in reading fluency and spelling are key markers of dyslexia.
Dyslexic difficulties exist on a continuum and can be experienced to various degrees of severity.
The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences.
Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such as mathematics, reading comprehension or learning another language.
The most commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (i.e., in phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory). However, phonological difficulties do not fully explain the variability that is observed.
Working memory, processing speed and orthographic skills can contribute to the impact of dyslexia.
Dyslexia frequently co-occurs with one or more other developmental difficulties, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder.
Reference:
Carroll, J.M., Holden, C., Kirby, P., Thompson, P.A., Snowling, M.J. and (2025), Toward a consensus on dyslexia: findings from a Delphi study. J Child Psychol Psychiatr. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14123
