Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by poor word-reading ability. Dyslexia exists in every culture studied and affects approximately 10% of the population. Its etiology is multifactorial and includes several genes and environmental risk factors.

At first glance, it would seem that SLI and dyslexia are two distinct developmental language disorders; SLI primarily represented by difficulties in semantics, syntax, and discourse, and dyslexia characterized by problems in phonological processing and word reading.

But dyslexia may affect a child’s speech as well, due to difficulties with language processing. A child with dyslexia may struggle with poor word retrieval. This means that they may know a word but have difficulties remembering how it sounds. Children with dyslexia often exhibit a slower acquisition of language skills.

There is a common misconception that dyslexia only affects the ability to read and write. In reality, dyslexia can affect memory, organisation, time-keeping, concentration, multi-tasking and communication.

delayed speech development compared with other children of the same age (although this can have many different causes) speech problems, such as not being able to pronounce long words properly and “jumbling” up phrases (for example, saying “hecilopter” instead of “helicopter”, or “beddy tear” instead of “teddy bear”)

Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental language disorder characterized by the inability to master spoken and written language expression and comprehension, despite normal nonverbal intelligence, hearing acuity, and speech motor skills, and no overt physical disability, recognized syndrome, or other …

Children with dyslexia often have early speech and language delays and later co-morbid deficits in broader language skills beyond phonology (Adlof & Hogan, 2018). This does not mean, however, that all children with dyslexia have language skills low enough to be classified as having developmental language disorder.

It’s not surprising that people with dyslexia have trouble spelling. They also might have trouble expressing themselves in writing and even speaking. Dyslexia is a language processing disorder, so it can affect all forms of language, spoken or written.

Individuals with dyslexia may also exhibit problems in language that extend to vocabulary and grammatical development. In fact, research shows that the inclusion of deficits in oral language beyond the phonological component may place children at a higher risk for dyslexia.