Key TakeawaysThe shift to working from home may be harder for adults with dyslexia.Many public misconceptions about dyslexia still exist, even among educators; it’s not seeing letters backwards.Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common in adults with dyslexia who were not identified and appropriately educated as children.Workplace accommodations for adults with a dyslexia diagnosis may include a variety of assistive technologies.
Key Takeaways
The shift to working from home may be harder for adults with dyslexia.Many public misconceptions about dyslexia still exist, even among educators; it’s not seeing letters backwards.Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common in adults with dyslexia who were not identified and appropriately educated as children.Workplace accommodations for adults with a dyslexia diagnosis may include a variety of assistive technologies.
Adults with undiagnosed dyslexia may experience various difficulties with reading, writing, or spelling. While many have learned how to compensate over the years, the COVID-19 pandemic and sudden switch to remote-style working from home has some finally seeking help.
“During COVID, we got a lot of calls from adults who suddenly hit a wall,” Marci Peterson, MEd, BCET, a board-certified educational therapist and dyslexia specialist and author of the new book,The Dyslexia Guide for Adults, told Verywell. “The parameters of the careers they had chosen and were good at changed from face-to-face conversation to emails. The workload got overwhelming.”
If you find yourself identifying with the above and want some answers, read on. You’ll learn what dyslexia looks like in adults and what treatments and tools are available to help you.
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a common learning disorder that involves problems reading, writing, or spelling words. It is also known as a “reading disability,” because it affects the area of the brain essential for speech production, articulation, and connecting sounds to letters.
Estimates of how common dyslexia is vary widely, from about 5%–20%. That translates to tens of millions of people in the United States.
Peterson notes the definition of dyslexia applies to any age. “It starts out with trouble hearing and articulating sounds correctly and that transfers over to difficulty reading words and spelling them.” In adults, it’s typically written communication that needs the most help.
Public Misconceptions About Dyslexia
In 2017, a large U.S. study inFrontiers in Psychologysurveyed laypeople and educators and found not only that many laypeople falsely believed a “common sign of dyslexia is seeing letters backwards,” but that more than half of educators believed this.
During the pandemic, psychologists at Northeastern University in Boston dug deeper and found these public misconceptions about dyslexia do not arise only from “innocent ignorance about the science of reading,” but from “false assumptions about how the mind works.” Their research, now published in the journalPLoS One, details the three experiments they conducted with adults who had not previously taken any advanced courses in linguistics; the majority also reported having not previously taken any advanced courses in biology.
Identifying present misconceptions around dyslexia is an important part of the conversation. To ensure today’s generation of children with dyslexia promptly receives appropriate interventions, the authors write, “it is critical that the general public—parents, educators, and legislators—are aware of dyslexia and its symptoms.”
What Dyslexia Is Not
Reading research has made it clear that people with dyslexia can learn successfully with appropriate teaching methods.
Symptoms of Dyslexia in Adults
Reading and spelling difficulties may be the key symptom of dyslexia in children, but it’s a bit more complicated with adults who’ve spent years finding ways to compensate for these deficits.
“As a child, I was diagnosed with a ‘learning difference’ and that diagnosis was ‘he’s slow,’” children’s book author and illustrator Trevor Romain told Verywell. “I figured out that visual learning was the only way I was going to get through school, so I drew pictures and used visuals to help me remember information.”
It wasn’t until his late 20s—after a visit to the eye doctor and a psychologist—that Romain was diagnosed with dyslexia.
“I thought I just wasn’t very smart before that,” he said. “The diagnosis gave me something to attach my frustration to and an understanding of what was really going on.”
Common Signs of Dyslexia in Adults Not Previously Diagnosed
A study of adults with dyslexia in theJournal of Psychology & Psychotherapyfound anger and resentment towards their childhood teachers still registered with them as adults—along with memories of injustice at the hands of the education system.Much of this anger was at their lack of diagnosis, which meant they suffered for many years as having an undiagnosed learning disorder.
“For the first time, we are seeing people in their 30s who were recognized with dyslexia as young children, but so much still depends on where you live in the U.S.,” Peterson said. “We know that when someone is feeling that poor about themselves and their abilities, high anxiety and depression come out. And if dyslexia diagnosis and treatment were considered a wellness issue within the U.S. healthcare system, more people could get the help they need.”
Romain says it’s been helpful to talk about the situation with his wife, a psychotherapist.
“As an adult, a lot of this comes back to self-esteem,” he said. “You can actually get quite depressed if you think you can’t compete in a profession you love.”
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How Is Dyslexia Diagnosed in Adults?
Dyslexia Screening Tests
Dyslexia screening tests are a good starting place and will provide your estimated risk of having dyslexia and/or your risk for developing dyslexia based on your family history.
TheAdult Reading History Questionnaire (ARHQ), for example, is a self-report screening tool designed to measure risk of reading disability in adults. The ARHQ asks adults about their own reading history and current reading habits to estimate the risk that they may have a reading disability.
Depending on the results, the screening may recommend a full face-to-face (or virtual) assessment with a trained professional.
Adult Dyslexia Assessments
“Assessments for adults might include checks of visual and auditory perception, discrimination, and memory,” Peterson said, adding that while an intelligence test is not necessary, “it can be a strong validation for bright adults who have trouble reading.”
However, finding a provider with experience assessing adults for dyslexia may be a challenge. A small study in the journalDyslexiashows some psychologists are not confident in their ability to assess adults due to a “lack of an empirical base and training and appropriately normed tools”—exposing the lack of international guidelines to support psychologists in identifying adults with dyslexia.
Peterson agrees the process for adults is not well defined but recommends looking for someone with in-depth knowledge of dyslexia and a broad understanding of language development and other disabilities.
“This professional does not need to administer the tests, but they must be qualified to interpret test results,” she said. “In evaluating adults, I look at how they process visual and auditory information because they can usually read.”
TheInternational Dyslexia Associationand theCenter for Effective Reading Instructioneach provide state-based directories of professionals who provide services and treatment to people with learning differences.
Treatment for Adult Dyslexia
It’s never too late to be helped. Reading skills can continue to grow and develop into adolescence and adulthood, according to research in the journalLanguage, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.And further studies have consistently shown that dyslexic students learn best with methods of instruction specifically designed to fit their way of thinking and learning, including multi-sensory and project-based approaches.
Assistive Technology
Assistive technology is anything that can help a person with a disability work around their challenges so they can learn, improve, and function better in their environment. While most might associate it with a school environment, much of the tech out there has applicability in a workplace and at home.
“Finding tools that work for you can make a difference in managing dyslexia as an adult,” Romain said. “My spelling is atrocious, but a word processor helps me. I’ve also been lucky to have wonderful editors throughout my career.”
Workplace Accommodations
In her book, Peterson devotes an entire section to the American with Disabilities Act and how to talk with your employer. “There are pros and cons to that, but right now, many [employers] are really seeing the value of cognitive diversity in the workplace,” she said.
Most employers (and schools) are willing to work with someone requesting accommodations within reason. These may include some of the aforementioned assistive technologies such as voice-to-text or text-to-voice program access.
Many, like Romain, have embraced dyslexia as part of their identity in adulthood. It’s never too late to find help and support.
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6 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Wagner RK, Zirps FA, Edwards AA, et al.The prevalence of dyslexia: a new approach to its estimation.J Learn Disabil. 2020;53(5):354-365. doi:10.1177/0022219420920377
Macdonald K, Germine L, Anderson A, Christodoulou J, McGrath LM.Dispelling the Myth: Training in Education or Neuroscience Decreases but Does Not Eliminate Beliefs in Neuromyths.Frontiers in Psychology. 2017;8:1314. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01314
Berent I, Platt M.Public misconceptions about dyslexia: The role of intuitive psychology.PLoS One. 2021;16(12):e0259019. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0259019
Sadusky A, Reupert AE, Freeman NC, Berger EP.Diagnosing adults with dyslexia: psychologists' experiences and practices.Dyslexia. 2021;27(4):468-485. doi:10.1002/dys.1689
Saletta M.Reading disabilities in adolescents and adults.Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2018;49(4):787-797. doi:10.1044/2018_LSHSS-DYSLC-18-0005
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