What dyslexia is — and what it is not

The NHS describes dyslexia as “a common learning difficulty where your brain works differently to most people” that “mainly affects things like reading, writing, and using numbers”. It adds the sentence that matters most to worried parents: “It does not affect intelligence.”

The International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition says something similar in more technical language: dyslexia is “a specific learning disability characterized by difficulties in word reading and/or spelling that involve accuracy, speed, or both.” Those difficulties “vary depending on the orthography” and “occur along a continuum of severity” while persisting despite effective instruction.

The British Dyslexia Association presents the consensus definition reached by a Delphi study of researchers and practitioners: “Dyslexia is a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling.” It adds that “difficulties in reading fluency and spelling are key markers of dyslexia” across languages, and that “the most commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing.”

That definition also notes that dyslexia “frequently co-occurs with one or more other developmental difficulties, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder.” If you are also wondering about attention or social communication, our guide on getting an ADHD or autism assessment as an expat family covers that; this article stays with reading and spelling. And it is never too late: the IDA says identification and targeted instruction “are important at any age.”

Is it dyslexia, or is it the second language?

This is the question that stalls expat families for years. A child who has moved into an English-medium school, or a local-language school abroad, will read slowly and spell oddly for a while simply because the language is new. When do you stop waiting?

The International Dyslexia Association addresses this in its guidance on English learners: “teasing apart these two factors is important for an accurate identification of dyslexia.” Its steer is that “if a student seems to have literacy skills in their native language but struggles with English, the issue might be related to limited exposure to high-quality instruction in English,” whereas “if a student has difficulty in their native language, that might point toward dyslexia.”

An assessment in only one of your child’s languages can mislead. SASC warns that most tests “have been developed and standardised on populations that are predominantly English-speaking,” and that background information “has a heightened role” here, because it is what lets an assessor separate a specific learning difficulty from “other linguistic and cultural factors.”

If your child is also silent or withdrawn in class, the picture gets more complicated — see our guides on selective mutism in bilingual children and on starting at a local school in a language your child doesn’t speak.

Early signs, by age

No single sign means dyslexia. What matters is a pattern that persists, and a gap between how your child sounds when they talk and what they produce on paper. The list below comes from the NHS and the British Dyslexia Association.

The BDA also lists things easily read as character flaws: “work avoidance tactics,” appearing “dreamy,” being easily distracted, being “excessively tired due to amount of concentration and effort required.” A child decoding every word works far harder than classmates for the same page. The NHS adds that frustration can lead to “disruptive behavior, or make a child become withdrawn at school and home.” If your child’s behavior changed before their reading was ever discussed, that order of events is worth telling the school.

Why a child abroad can be missed for years

The most common outcome for an expat child with reading difficulties is not a wrong diagnosis. It is no diagnosis at all, for years, because there is always a reasonable-sounding explanation available. The IDA describes exactly this pattern: English learners with dyslexia were “less likely to be identified” early, and schools may fail to identify them by “attributing any English reading and writing difficulties to their status as English learners” — yet “by third grade, the proportion of non-native, English-speaking students identified with dyslexia was higher than expected.” Identified late, and then in a rush.

Mobility is the second reason children slip through: a concern raised in spring rarely reaches the new school in a new country in September, because the file that travels is the transcript, not the worry. If you are moving, put your concerns in writing and ask for them to go into the records that transfer — the same principle we describe in our guide to changing international schools mid-year.

What a dyslexia assessment actually involves

First, a screener is not a diagnosis. The British Dyslexia Association says “screening tests and checklists can be a great help in order to ensure support is put in place quickly, but they can’t provide a diagnosis”; dyslexia “can only be formally diagnosed through a Diagnostic Assessment carried out by a certified assessor.” The BDA assesses children from age 7 onwards, to comply with SASC guidelines.

Second, who does it. The NHS is explicit: “An educational psychologist or a specialist teacher will usually do a dyslexia assessment, not a doctor.” It adds that “a GP cannot diagnose dyslexia,” though a doctor can check hearing and vision. It suggests starting with the school’s special educational needs coordinator, and notes that “most people have to pay for an assessment.”

A report also has a shelf life. SASC advises reassessment after more than one year for a primary-aged child and more than two years for a secondary student. Exam boards set their own windows: Cambridge International tells exams officers that for learning difficulties such as dyslexia, evidence “must be dated within four years” of the exam series, because “their symptoms may change.” If you are assessing a 13-year-old with IGCSEs in mind, check that timing before you book.

Who can assess your child abroad, and what to check first

Outside your home country, professional titles do not map neatly. “Educational psychologist,” “school psychologist” and “dyslexia assessor” can mean very different qualifications in Singapore, Dubai, Jakarta or Sydney. The question is not what the person is called, but whose rules their report has to satisfy.

Two reference points help. SASC recognizes two groups as qualified to carry out diagnostic assessments: specialist teacher assessors holding a current Assessment Practising Certificate (APC) issued by the BDA, the Dyslexia Guild or Patoss, and psychologists registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). The BDA tells parents to look for an active AMBDA with recent CPD or a current APC, and to check it “by asking to see copies of each document.” Cambridge International requires evidence “signed by an authorised, qualified person such as a doctor, medical professional, or educational psychologist,” stating “details of their relevant qualifications.”

Support at school, and exam access arrangements

Teaching that actually changes reading

The IDA describes Structured Literacy as “the most effective approach for students who experience unusual difficulty learning to read and spell printed words.” It covers phoneme awareness, sound-symbol correspondences, syllable types, morphology, syntax and semantics — taught explicitly and systematically. In the IDA’s words, “the teacher explains each concept directly and clearly, providing guided practice,” follows “a planned scope and sequence of skills,” and “uses student response patterns to adjust pacing, presentation, and amount of practice.”

That last phrase is worth quoting when a school offers “extra reading” with no named method.

Exams: start earlier than you think

Exam boards allow adjustments, but on their terms. The International Baccalaureate frames its approach as removing or reducing “barriers so that every student can fully participate in IB programmes.” Cambridge International’s guidance to exams officers contains the rule parents discover too late: arrangements must reflect the candidate’s normal way of working — candidates “should be using these arrangements for their classwork and homework, as well as class tests and mock exams.”

Applications are made by the school as an exam center, not by you. Ask in writing who is responsible, and by which internal deadline.

What you can do at home

You are not your child’s therapist, and home should not become a second school day. The aim is to keep reading something that happens with you, and to protect your child’s sense of being capable.

Keep a short, dated record: how long homework took, which words came back wrong three weeks running, what your child said about reading group. When you finally sit down with an assessor, that record is evidence no test can reproduce. And protect one place where your child is unquestionably good at something — sport, music, cooking, a language they speak beautifully even if they cannot spell it.

Finally, tell your child what is going on, in words that match their age. Children who are not told why reading is hard reach a conclusion on their own, and it is rarely a kind one.

Stay, specialist provision, or online school?

Most children with dyslexia stay in mainstream school and do well there with the right teaching. Some move to a school with specialist literacy provision. A few families abroad, especially those who move often or live where provision is thin, look at online schooling. Here is how the three compare.

Note the second row. An online school is not a substitute for specialist literacy teaching unless it says in writing that it provides it. For many families the honest arrangement is online school plus a separate specialist tutor for reading — plan and budget for both.

An online option to consider: NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY

NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA) is an online international school for ages 6–18, run by NIJIN, the company behind this site. We mention it because small-group learning suits some children who have spent years dreading being asked to read aloud to a class of twenty-five. Please read the limitations as carefully as the features.

Frequently asked questions

Sources used for this article

If a smaller, calmer school day would help

NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY runs live online classes of eight with bilingual mentors and no rankings, for families across Asia and Oceania. It opens in September 2027, tuition is not yet announced, and free trial classes are planned monthly from September 2026. It does not advertise specialist dyslexia provision, so ask about literacy support.

Visit NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY