Dyslexia in 2026: 5 Things Parents and Educators Should Know
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month.
While awareness has grown significantly, some of the most common misunderstandings about dyslexia still shape how students are identified and supported.
Can a child have dyslexia if they can read? What if reading is accurate, but very slow? Does dyslexia always involve phonological processing? Does a child have to have average or above-average intelligence to be dyslexic?
Those common questions are easier to tackle as the understanding of dyslexia continues to grow.
In October 2025, the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) adopted an updated definition of dyslexia, replacing the definition that had been widely used since 2002. The new definition reflects more than two decades of additional research and gives parents, educators, and professionals a more complete picture of what dyslexia can actually look like.
Here are five key points that make understanding dyslexia clearer.
1. Dyslexia can show up in reading, spelling, or both.
One of the biggest changes in the IDA definition is right at the beginning.
IDA now defines dyslexia as a specific learning disability characterized by difficulties with word reading and/or spelling.
That “and/or” is important.
Sometimes we become so focused on a student's reading level that we overlook one of the clearest windows into how they are processing written language: their spelling.
A student may learn to recognize many familiar words. They may memorize words they see frequently. They may even reach a point where their reading looks much stronger than it did when they were younger.
But spelling can continue to reveal gaps in their understanding of sounds, letter patterns, syllables, word parts, and how our written language works.
In fact, spelling difficulties often persist even when reading has improved.
Yet, in our experience, many school teams refuse to add spelling goals and services to dyslexic students’ IEPs, overlooking a major area of need for these students. We often hear that the student has access to spell check and does not need spelling instruction.
Given the dyslexia research, we know that spelling deficits can be part of the dyslexic profile and should be addressed.
The takeaway: Don't look at reading scores alone. Look at how the student reads and spells.
2. A child can read the words correctly and still struggle due to dyslexia.
We often think of a reading problem as reading words wrong.
But accuracy is only part of the picture.
The updated IDA definition specifically says that difficulties may involve accuracy, speed, or both.
That means a student may eventually read a passage correctly but need far more time than their peers.
They may pause frequently.
They may need several attempts to recognize unfamiliar words.
They may finish a page but use so much mental energy figuring out the words that they have little attention left for understanding the content.
This is why looking only at whether a student got an answer “right” can hide an important part of the problem. IDA's guidance on evaluation also notes that students with dyslexia may become accurate readers while still reading words very slowly. And... automaticity indicates whether a student can accurately apply their learned decoding skills to new words.
The takeaway: Accuracy and automaticity are important when decoding because fluent reading indicates mastery of basic decoding skills and leads to better comprehension.
3. Dyslexia does not require a certain level of intelligence.
For years, commonly used descriptions of dyslexia emphasized that reading difficulties were “unexpected” compared with a person's other cognitive abilities.
The updated definition intentionally removes that language.
Why?
Because research does not support using a particular IQ score or cognitive profile to determine whether someone's word-reading or spelling difficulties are dyslexia.
IDA explains that dyslexia occurs across a range of cognitive profiles and that general intelligence has little relationship to the nature of a person's word-level reading difficulties or how they respond to intervention.
A highly gifted child can have dyslexia.
A child with average cognitive abilities can have dyslexia.
And a student with other cognitive or developmental disabilities can also have dyslexia.
Dyslexia is identified by the pattern of difficulty with written language, not by proving that a student is “smart enough” to be dyslexic.
That distinction matters when we evaluate students and determine what support they need.
The takeaway: Dyslexia can occur across a wide range of cognitive profiles.
4. There is not one single “dyslexia profile.”
Phonological processing remains strongly connected to dyslexia, but the updated IDA definition and recent research also recognize something important: Not every person with dyslexia has the same underlying weaknesses.
IDA now specifically identifies both phonological processing and morphological processing as common, but not universal, areas of difficulty.
Phonological processing involves recognizing, remembering, and working with the sounds in spoken language.
Morphological processing involves understanding meaningful parts of words. For example, recognizing how help, helpful, helpless, and helping are related.
Orthographic processing can also be an important part of a dyslexic learner’s profile. Orthographic processing involves recognizing, storing, and retrieving the written patterns of language, including letter sequences and familiar word forms. These skills play an important role in efficient word recognition and spelling, particularly in English, with its complex written language system.
The new definition also calls attention to early oral-language weaknesses, because difficulties with spoken language can sometimes appear before reading problems become obvious.
This is one reason a comprehensive evaluation is critical to fully understanding the individual’s unique profile.
The takeaway: Look for a pattern across reading, spelling, language, and a variety of processing areas.
5. Evidence-based general education classroom literacy instruction isn’t enough.
Across the country, more states and school systems are moving toward evidence-based literacy instruction grounded in the science of reading. That is an important shift, and stronger classroom instruction benefits all students.
But strong general education literacy instruction does not eliminate dyslexia or address the unique needs of a student with dyslexia.
The updated IDA definition specifically notes that dyslexia involves word-reading and/or spelling difficulties that persist even when a student has received instruction that is effective for their peers.
A general education literacy curriculum may include phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. For a student with dyslexia, however, the difference is often not simply what is being taught, but how intensively, explicitly, and responsively it must be taught.
The classroom curriculum has to keep moving. A student with dyslexia may need more repetition, more cumulative review, more direct feedback, and additional time to reach mastery before moving on.
If most students are progressing and one student continues to struggle, that is important data. It may tell us that the student needs a more intensive level of instruction than the general education classroom is designed to provide.
And importantly, persistence does not mean waiting for a student to fail. A student’s response to strong classroom instruction and supplemental intervention can help us identify concerns early.
The takeaway: Evidence-based general education literacy instruction is an essential foundation, but some students with dyslexia will need instruction that is more intensive, individualized, and responsive to mastery.
What should dyslexia awareness look like now?
Awareness should help us recognize dyslexia more accurately in the children we care for.
Not just in the student who is obviously struggling to read, but also in the student whose spelling, fluency, processing, or response to instruction tells a more complicated story.
Dyslexia does not look exactly the same in every student.
The better we understand that, the sooner we can ask the right questions, look at the right data, and provide the support each student actually needs.
That is what meaningful dyslexia awareness looks like.
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