{"id":24199,"date":"2025-10-28T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=24199"},"modified":"2026-02-18T15:58:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:58:30","slug":"unraveling-dyslexia-dispelling-myths-and-understanding-early-intervention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2025\/unraveling-dyslexia-dispelling-myths-and-understanding-early-intervention\/","title":{"rendered":"Unraveling dyslexia: Dispelling myths and understanding early intervention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dyslexia is a widely recognized learning difficulty, yet research shows misconceptions are widespread, not only among the general public but also among educators<\/a>, school psychologists<\/a>, reading specialists<\/a>, and even college professors<\/a>. This complicates the path to understanding the most widely identified learning disability and getting the right intervention and support to students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we observe Dyslexia Awareness Month<\/a>, it\u2019s essential to dispel these myths, offer clarity through research-backed models, and emphasize the importance of early screening and targeted intervention. By fostering a deeper understanding of what dyslexia is, educators and administrators can enable students to understand their difficulties and achieve their full potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common misconceptions about dyslexia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While completing my doctorate, I researched how best to help dispel misconceptions<\/a> about dyslexia among educators. Studies from the field of conceptual change, a subset of the field of learning science, show that dispelling misinformation can work better to improve long-term understanding than just giving people accurate information. To do this, we must first name and normalize myths before attempting to inform people about the facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite increased awareness, myths about dyslexia continue to thrive. One of the most common misconceptions<\/a> is that dyslexia means people see letters or words backward. This myth has been perpetuated in pop culture, but dyslexia is not a visual problem; instead, most plainly, it\u2019s an increased difficulty with learning to read and spell words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another myth is that dyslexia is tied to intelligence. Some assume that if a child is smart, they can\u2019t possibly have dyslexia, or that struggling with reading equates to a lack of intelligence. Some people believe you have to find a discrepancy between intelligence scores and reading scores. Neither of these is true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dyslexia describes a difficulty with learning to decode words fluently and trouble with spelling. There is no need to find any discrepancies in intelligence, strengths, or weaknesses to identify a student with dyslexia. Instead, the best practice for identification<\/a> is a low response to generally effective reading intervention, combined with low achievement in reading that isn\u2019t accounted for by other disabilities, like an intellectual disability or the need for glasses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A path to clearer understanding: The Simple View of Reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To understand dyslexia better, it\u2019s helpful to look through the lens of the Simple View of Reading. According to this model<\/a>, reading is composed of two essential components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. While both components are crucial for successful reading, when we use the term \u201cdyslexia,\u201d we are only referring to the word-recognition component; that is, we\u2019re referring only to decoding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This difficulty with word recognition is the defining factor of the term \u201cdyslexia,\u201d which the International Dyslexia Association (IDA)<\/a> defines as \u201ca specific learning disability\u2026characterized by difficulties with accurate and\/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t mean students with dyslexia may also have a difficulty with language comprehension; as we know from research<\/a>, about 50% of children with dyslexia also have developmental language disorder, or DLD. This fact helps educational leaders know to always assess both components separately, rather than just assessing reading comprehension, when doing a comprehensive assessment for dyslexia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DLD and dyslexia: A connection through the Simple View of Reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DLD can co-occur with dyslexia, further complicating reading and learning. While dyslexia affects word recognition, DLD impacts a child\u2019s ability to understand and use language, influencing how they comprehend what they hear and read. For more on this, watch Tiffany Hogan, a leading researcher in dyslexia and DLD, as she emphasizes the importance of recognizing DLD as a significant factor in reading development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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