Everyone with dyslexia is different!
A person’s genes and life experiences impact their dyslexia and how it develops over time.
All people with dyslexia have processing difficulties that make learning to read and spell more challenging.
This usually involves words and sounds, whether that be manipulating them, holding onto them in sequences, or remembering them quickly enough to work efficiently.
They can also have difficulties with working memory, processing information quickly, or with symbols (such as letters and spelling patterns).
People with dyslexia do less well in literacy tasks and tests that involve reading and/or spelling. This is unexpected, given their age, education and/or other abilities.
Often people with dyslexia have challenges with more than just reading and spelling, for example they could have difficulties with speech, comprehension, maths, attention, organisation or handwriting.
These often cross over with other medical conditions or learning difficulties, such attention deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (ADHD), developmental language disorder (DLD), developmental co-ordination disorder / dyspraxia (DCD), and/or dyscalculia.
The term ‘neurodiverse’ is sometimes used to describe dyslexic people as it helps to include these differences.
Based on the Delphi Definition of Dyslexia.
The Delphi Definition of Dyslexia
Manifestation
• The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences.
Manifestation
• Dyslexia is a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling. 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.
Impact
• 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 languages and age groups, difficulties in reading and spelling fluency are a key marker of dyslexia.
Variance and co-occurrence
• Dyslexic difficulties exist on a continuum and can be experienced to various degrees of severity. Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such as mathematics, reading comprehension or learning another language. Dyslexia frequently co-occurs with one or more other developmental difficulties, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder.
Carroll, J., Holden, C., Kirby, P., Snowling, M. J., & Thompson, P.A. (2024). The Delphi definition of dyslexia. Available at: http://www.sasc.org.uk/media/3imfgx54/sasc-briefing-paper-delphi-dyslexia-study-may-2024-final.pdf(Accessed on 31 May 2024).
* orthographic skills: linking a letter or group of letters to a specific sound for reading or spelling.
Deborah Cobbing 