A research review describes dyslexia as severe difficulty learning to decode print, and says it runs in families. It reports weaknesses in hearing the sounds in words, in letter-sound knowledge and in rapid naming. The teaching it describes as helping joins sound work tied to letters with systematic phonics.
The review describes dyslexia as severe difficulty learning to decode print: trouble recognizing printed words, great difficulty sounding out new words, and often slow reading.
In the source’s own words“Children with dyslexia find it hard to recognize printed words, have great difficulties ‘sounding out’ unfamiliar words, and often also read slowly.”
The review says dyslexia runs in families.
In the source’s own words“Dyslexia runs in families and twin studies have established that difficulties with reading and related skills are highly heritable.”
The review says children with dyslexia show weaknesses in hearing the sounds in words, in letter-sound knowledge and in rapid naming, in the preschool years and after.
In the source’s own words“Children with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond.”
The review says children with poor spoken language in the preschool years are at high risk of dyslexia and of reading comprehension problems.
In the source’s own words“children with poor language skills in the preschool years are at high risk of developing both dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment.”
The review reports that children whose early language difficulties cleared up by the start of reading lessons tended to read and write well later.
In the source’s own words“children with early language difficulties, which resolved by the start of formal literacy instruction tended to have good literacy outcomes”
The review says screening for dyslexia is not accurate enough until close to school entry, when letter knowledge, sound awareness and rapid naming together screen well.
In the source’s own words“screening for dyslexia does not reach an acceptable clinical level until close to school entry when letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and RAN, rather than family risk, together provide good sensitivity …”
The review says teaching that helps decoding in dyslexia combines work on the sounds in words tied to letters with systematic phonics, done alongside book reading.
In the source’s own words“interventions to promote decoding (and hence remediate dyslexia) comprise training in phoneme awareness linked to letter knowledge, together with systematic phonic instruction in the context of book reading.”
A meta-analysis of randomized trials with children and teens with reading disabilities found phonics instruction was the only approach whose effect on reading was statistically confirmed.
In the source’s own words“Phonics instruction was investigated most often. This approach is the only one whose effectiveness on reading performance was statistically confirmed.”
We read each of these ourselves on October 9, 2026. Follow the links to read them too.
“Behind in reading” can mean ten different things, and each one needs different help. Check off what is true for your child. You will see the one thing to work on first, and what can wait.
