The Definition of Dyslexia Changed: Here's What It Means for Your Family

There's a new definition of dyslexia out. What's changed and what does it mean?

It got me diagnosed when I was in third grade and it was the most relieving day of my life because I finally had like kind of a place to hang my hat and say, see, I told you I'm not lazy, definitely not stupid. I just learned differently. Like, that's totally okay. We were dyslexics. We were often, you know, just set up for failure because, you know, we were given books and tasks that really are not appropriate for the level that we were at.

So, how do you expect anyone to be open to learning when their entire relationship with reading, with learning, is physical pain? I wish I had understood when I was younger that the fact that my brain worked differently than people meant that I would be good at things in ways that other kids were not going to be good at. I just assumed I can't be dyslexic because letters don't jump up and down for me.

Dyslexia is not a disorder. It is not a disease. Once you sort of own it and embrace it, then you can have the power to deal with it. It's sort of empowering and also enriching to the whole community. To those who don't understand what dyslexia is, that it's not a negative. It's not a problem. It's, like we keep saying, superpower.

Hey, everyone. We're Sonja and Nick, and this is Dyslexia Journey. And today we're talking about... No. Okay. I don't even know what we're talking about. Okay. You do, because you just said it. Okay. Just go with that again. Yeah. Hey, everyone. We're Sonja and Nick, and this is Dyslexia Journey. And today we're talking about a new definition of dyslexia that was approved by the International Dyslexia Association last fall, actually, October 2025.

And this particular episode was actually inspired by an article that Doctors Brock and Fernette Eide wrote in Psychology Today about the change and some concerns that they actually have about it. And so we thought it would be a good chance to go through the actual changes and then talk about the IDs' concerns and throwing in our own opinions, of course. Right. Well, and it's mixed. Even, you know, for the IDs as well, they definitely saw the need for the change, but there are implications.

Yeah, for sure. So we're not going to read the definition out loud simply because it's a bit long, and you can, you know, read it for yourself to see this, you know, all these exact sentences and the way they worded it. But we're going to go through what is in it, and we'll definitely link the definition so you can take a look. Yeah, and so the key, like, I guess the major change that is generating the most discussion about this definition is that they took out this concept of an unexpected difficulty or an IQ discrepancy.

And so previously the discussion, or previously the definition contained wording like that, and they've completely taken that out. Right, and so that, so just to put that in more concrete terms, if that's not clear what that would be, it might look like a kid who the teacher, you know, they talk to the teacher and the teacher can realize, you know, oh, they're so bright, you know, and they seem to understand the concepts really well, but they're really struggling with reading, you know, more than their peers.

So there's that difference that they're noticing. And then often in assessment, it's a similar thing where there's testing that tries to get around reading, you know, and possibly that's IQ testing of various sorts. And then the reading sort of separate, like with reading, is there a difference then in what that IQ would be? Yeah, and so I guess, I guess it'd probably be good to tell you the actual wording that used to be there.

It was, quote, difficulties were, quote, often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities. Right. Yeah, and so the reason they took it out is because the range, as we've discussed many times in the show, the range of people with dyslexia, the intelligence range of people with dyslexia is the same bell curve of the intelligence range of the population as a whole. Right, and it seems kind of obvious when you think about it, right?

In a way, it was like, well, what, I mean, there could be someone who didn't seem that way to the teacher and they're dyslexic, so. Right, right, right, so it was basically leading people to underdiagnosed dyslexia in people in the lower part of the IQ range. Mm-hmm, right, so it was an important thing to do. Yeah, for sure, but the IDs, who, by the way, we have had on our show, and we will link to them, and they are the authors of the amazing book, The Dyslexic Advantage, they point out in Psychology Today some potential problems with removing that, talking about a discrepancy at all.

Mm-hmm, yes. And so I think maybe the most obvious thing is just simply that, you know, if the people on the lower end of the spectrum are getting missed, now people on the higher end of the spectrum of the IQ spectrum might be missed. Because even with the old definition, that was happening a lot, actually, and it's because often those kids are able to hide it more easily, or, you know, if they're able to do pretty well, maybe from other kinds of things, inference or trying to, you know, they're able to, like, guess things easier or that kind of thing, then their scores maybe will look kind of just okay, but not as good as they could actually do if they didn't have the reading problem.

Yeah, and I think we've actually, on previous shows, we've actually lauded the reliance on discrepancy. And I think we've even talked about for our daughter how that was a key part of her diagnosis. Yeah. So showing that someone is reading at grade level or even above grade level, but their intelligence measured in a different way is a standard deviation or two above average has been a key way that diagnosis has been done in the past.

Mm-hmm, right. And so the concern here, as Sonja said, is if there are dyslexic kids who are able to compensate and read at grade level and are just kind of lost in the shuffle, because the kind of average kids in school often do get lost in the shuffle, then they might not be identified as readily now. Right. And, I mean, this is important because definitions matter. Like, you know, they're used for things like whether or not kids will get accommodations and actually be able to demonstrate really what they can do and learn to the highest level that they can.

And, you know, especially like probably in today's climate, and I don't know if we'll talk about this in future episodes or not on the specifics, but, you know, we're hearing a lot about pushback anyway towards accommodations and towards what qualifies as a disability in the sense, you know, for disability, the reason that's important is because of getting accommodations and actually being appropriately challenged and things like that. So, it's tricky because we can say, oh, well, let's just make sure teachers know this still.

And that's good. That's important. But are those kids going to qualify even? Yeah, and you mentioned the pushback. I mean, the societal pushback on this is real. And so, if with this change, is there going to be even more pushback against people getting accommodations who aren't obviously struggling or at the bottom of their class? Or as we talked about in a previous episode, there was this big hullabaloo about how so many, 20% of the students at Stanford are getting accommodations and things like that, where people just don't understand how highly intelligent, high-achieving people can have learning difficulties.

And can still need accommodations. Right. And, of course, that was for all kinds of different kinds of qualifications for the accommodations. But, so, it's interesting because there's still, I mean, we don't know, right? How can we address this? I mean, this is going to be an interesting question going forward and how it affects things. Yeah.

But we want to make sure to, you know, really also talk about why this is important that they did make the changes because it is important too. So, we should go into that a bit more too, what the other specifics were that they changed. Yeah, for sure. And I don't, as I'm talking about this, I don't mean to kind of pit like above average dyslexic kids against below average dyslexic kids. Like, in our opinion, and this almost doesn't need to be stated, but I'll state it anyways.

Everyone with dyslexia needs to be identified and given the accommodations that they need to reach their potential. So, one aspect of the new definition that's important that we haven't mentioned in detail here yet, so it's important to mention is that hard circumstances now no longer rule your child out, which is important too. So, before, you know, you can understand why they did it. They were trying to say, you know, trying to figure out what's the real cause here of the reading difficulty.

And if it's something that can be ameliorated in a different way, like hard circumstances, I mean, that's difficult to ameliorate. But if it's not, you know, caused by dyslexia, then, you know, thinking of that would be a different route. But that really doesn't make sense, again, when you think about the population and just how many people are on the spectrum of dyslexia. And the fact that then it would be very easy to miss those kids, right?

I mean, if you're, someone can have hard circumstances and be dyslexic. Right. So, yeah. So, the specific wording that they changed is the previous definition called dyslexia neurobiological in origin. And the new one says the causes, quote, involve combinations of genetic, neurobiological, and environmental influences that interact throughout development. Right, right. And so, it can be all kinds of things. They include things like a language, you know, that, let's say they're speaking English and a different language is spoken at home.

So, it's not only difficult circumstances in the sense of poverty, although that's included too, but it's things like that. Yeah, and they do actually talk in, not in the definition itself, but in the research article, which we will link, that kind of justifies this definition. They do actually, interestingly, talk about how dyslexia is going to show up more often in English than in languages like Finnish, which are much more phonetic. Yes. Spanish is more phonetic as well.

Yeah. You know, there's a, there's a spectrum somewhat on how phonetic languages are, but, yeah. So, it's, so, they were pointing out that sometimes if, if, if the school is able to see both, like how well they do in the language spoken at home, they might get a misimpression if it's a more phonetic language. So, that's kind of in the weeds there a little bit, but it's just, I think it just shows that there's so many nuances to this.

Yeah. And how complex it is. And so, trying to cast a wider net and really get people the help they need is the goal here, even though we mentioned the difficulty with, with people maybe who are on the higher spectrum of IQ. And the other thing I'll say is that, you know, this just reminds me, we have, we have to do it this way because this is how the system's set up in order to have the definition and get the accommodations and all that.

But really, we should be providing the potential extra instruction to any, to anyone with reading difficulty, right? So, if you looked at, if you look to turn it that way, and we were always just thinking from that perspective, then it wouldn't matter, you know, why. Right. So, but unfortunately, the system that we live in does, does require this diagnosis in order to get services. Yeah, so, so, so overall, the International Dyslexia Association is doing a very good thing here by trying to broaden the definition in ways that will hopefully lead to more diagnoses.

Okay, so the, the kind of third main point in this new definition is that it actually says, so the previous definition said, reading difficulties, quote, typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language. The new definition says that that is common, but not universal, which is really interesting because we tend to think of dyslexia as a phonological difficulty, which is just to remind everyone that the phonemes are the sounds that are made up of letters or groups of letters in, in a word.

Right. And I mean, I think this, this piece of the new definition is getting at the fact that there are different kinds of dyslexia. I mean, we know now that there's a lot of different genes involved, for example, and we also talked about it as a spectrum. But, you know, there's definitely, you know, there are definitely cases where the phonology piece isn't, isn't, doesn't feel as much like the root cause. In fact, in our, in our daughter's case, that was true.

Right. And so it's important. I think this is great because it's getting at the different kinds of dyslexia. Yeah. And in our daughter's case, it, it has been called stealth dyslexia. You may have heard that term, which is not an official term. It's not an official diagnosis. It was just a kind of a way of getting around the previous reliance in the definition on, on phonological problems being the main thing. Right. Yeah. So, so I think hopefully this will lead to less of the thing where the schools would do a quick phonological test. And then if that was okay, then, oh, I guess it's not dyslexia, which wasn't true.

So that people were definitely getting missed that way. Yeah. And we, I guess we already talked about the next point, so I won't go into it in depth, but it does depend on the language now. So they take into account, they take into account whether language is phonological or not, because, you know, dyslexics are still dyslexic. In a language that's phonological. But as they start to progress in the language, it will be easier for them than it would be in a language like English, where it's so, so, so all over the place.

And this is so important in the U.S. where a lot of kids' English is their second language. And we actually had a really interesting interview that we published with someone whose native language is Mandarin Chinese. And she didn't realize that she was dyslexic until she started going to school in English as a teenager. And so in the U.S., there's a lot of people who speak Spanish as a native language where dyslexia is not going to show up as much.

Right. Okay. And then the final point is that they left that disability idea in there. We started to talk about this, but I think let's go into it just a little more. So why didn't they use something like neurodiversity? They didn't even use learning difference. And I'm actually going to use their language here because I think it's important. So when talking about soft, what they call softer language, so rather than disability, saying learning difference or neurodiversity, they said, quote, it can also obscure the reality that these challenges are genuine, persistent, and have significant educational and social implications.

And that's, I think, often what we've talked about here when we talk about, like, we do like the neurodiversity perspective, absolutely, in terms of identity, in terms of realizing that this isn't not just about the things that are more difficult. It's about a difference in the brain that shows up in other ways that are, you know, we consider more positive, too. But this, but trying to get at what can help the people, you kind of have to, you have to focus on the challenges.

Yeah. And there's also a legal reason for this. So the way that the laws are written in the U.S., I'm not sure about other countries, but at least in the U.S., they do need the word disability in there in order for children to qualify, and adults actually, in the workplace to qualify for accommodations under various laws in the U.S. Right, right. So just really quickly, some of the things that stayed the same from the previous definition are that they consider the core of, you know, being dyslexic and what it's about, is word level reading and spelling.

Comprehension problems can happen, too, but they usually are, like, because of those initial problems, not the defining feature. And then there's, they had already said that there was the continuum of severity, and then that the persistence, it persists the problem, even though there's good instruction. So they don't necessarily mean, like, you know, really intense dyslexic instruction there, but, you know, it's like a school where the teacher is able to actually, you know, teach well for the kids that they're teaching.

Yeah, but the persistence is important, because as we've talked about in previous episodes, there's no cure for dyslexia. This isn't something that can be, you know, remediated over a few months, and then the kid never needs accommodations again. Right, which still is a common misconception out there, actually, sometimes. And, like, sometimes people have to be retested after a certain number of years, which doesn't make sense if you realize that it's just a different brain difference that you always have.

Right, exactly. So, yeah, so I think overall, it was, like, a great attempt at making a definition that will be a broader net and that will, you know, get more people the services they need. Really, perhaps there's other things, and let us know in the comments if you notice, other things that may be missed by the new definition. But really, the thing that the ID's honed in on, where you might miss the kids who won't be appropriately challenged or won't get the extra reading help, simply because they're able to get around, you know, they're perhaps getting around things by guessing or by, like, you know, inferring things.

And, you know, often that goes together with what we call a high IQ. That's probably the group that's going to be challenged by the new definition. Right, and I will say, as a parent, we are the parents of a dyslexic kid, and if you're out there as a parent and you're wondering about your child, whether or not they have dyslexia, I think it is really important still, despite what the definition says, to, I think that word unexpected is important, because you as a parent, you know, you have a really strong sense of your child and what they are capable of, and you know if their school performance does not line up with what you know about your child.

And so don't neglect, don't overlook that unexpected aspect. Yeah, because that is often the way that it does get found, is by parents and that unexpected piece. Yes.

So let us know your thoughts on the new definition. You know, I think it's going to be evolving over time in terms of what the consequences of changing it are. Hopefully it'll be as good consequences as possible. But we'll see. Yeah, and we will link, we actually wrote up a summary of all of this on our website, which is thedyslexiajourney.com. And also feel free to email us at parentingdyslexiajourney at gmail.com.

Thank you.