Types of Dyslexia: The Labels Sorted, and What Matters

There are no official types of dyslexia. A child’s assessment report describes their reading difficulty, not a type. The “types” listed online are a mix of patterns researchers describe, informal nicknames and difficulties that are not dyslexia at all.

That matters because lists of six, seven or twelve types can send a parent hunting for the right label when the label changes very little. This guide sorts every name you are likely to meet, explains the few that need their own answer, and ends on what does change the plan for a child. For the condition itself, start with what dyslexia is.

Are there different types of dyslexia?

Not in the sense of separate diagnoses. The formal term, specific learning disorder with impairment in reading, has no subtypes, and the American Psychiatric Association describes it by how severe it is, not by kind. Researchers do describe different patterns of reading difficulty, and those patterns are where the best known “types” come from.

The table sorts the labels into three groups: terms used in research, informal names, and things that are not dyslexia.

Label	Group	What it refers to
Phonological dyslexia	Used in research	Trouble sounding out words, most obvious on words a child has never seen
Surface dyslexia	Used in research	Sounding out works, but words that break the rules (“said”, “yacht”) are not recognised or spelt from memory
Double deficit dyslexia	Used in research	Weak sound skills together with slow naming of letters, numbers and colours
Developmental dyslexia	Used in research	Dyslexia present from childhood. It is what “dyslexia” means for a child
Acquired dyslexia (alexia)	Used in research	Reading lost after a brain injury or stroke, in a person who could read before
Deep dyslexia	Used in research	One form of acquired dyslexia, described in adults after brain injury
Auditory dyslexia	Informal	Another name for the phonological pattern. It does not mean a hearing loss
Orthographic dyslexia	Informal	Another name for the surface pattern
Rapid naming dyslexia	Informal	The slow naming half of the double deficit, used as a name of its own
Stealth dyslexia	Informal	Dyslexia hidden by strong understanding, usually in a very able child
Verbal dyslexia	Informal	No agreed meaning. Usually said of a child who mixes up or cannot find words when talking
Mild, moderate and severe dyslexia	Informal	Severity, not a type. One range, described in three steps
Visual dyslexia	Not dyslexia	When it means print that blurs, moves or doubles, it describes eyesight or visual comfort
Directional dyslexia	Not dyslexia	Mixing up left and right or losing the way. It is not part of any definition of dyslexia
Dysgraphia and dyscalculia	Not dyslexia	Separate learning disorders in writing and in maths. Either can occur alongside dyslexia

Six of these labels need more than a line.

What is phonological dyslexia?

Phonological dyslexia is the pattern where a child cannot reliably sound out words. It shows most clearly on made up words such as “vib” or “blom”, which cannot be recognised and have to be worked out from their letters.

It is the pattern most of the research on dyslexia describes. A review in the Oxford Review of Education names a difficulty with the sound structure of speech as the main cause of dyslexia at the level of thinking skills. The same review notes that the difficulty can be found in the preschool years, before a child is taught to read. The name is less a type than a description of the usual case.

What is surface dyslexia?

Surface dyslexia is the pattern where a child can sound words out but does not build a store of words known on sight. Regular words are read correctly, if slowly. Words that do not follow the usual letter and sound patterns go wrong: “was” may be spelt “woz” and “island” read as “is-land”.

The term comes from studies of adults who lost reading skills after brain injury. Anne Castles and Max Coltheart applied it to children in 1993, describing some children with dyslexia as weaker at sounding out and others as weaker at recognising irregular words. “Orthographic dyslexia” means the same thing. The two patterns overlap, and current research describes dyslexia as varying from child to child, not as falling into clean groups.

What is double deficit dyslexia?

Double deficit dyslexia describes a child with two weaknesses at once: difficulty working with the sounds in words, and slow naming speed. Naming speed is how quickly a child can say the names of familiar things, such as a row of letters, digits or colours.

The idea was set out by Maryanne Wolf and Patricia Bowers in 1999. A review in The Lancet reports that children with both weaknesses have particularly poor literacy outcomes. For the person teaching the child, the term is a flag that reading fluency needs attention as well as accuracy. How these skills show up in a child’s talking is covered in the guide to dyslexia and spoken language.

Is acquired dyslexia the same as developmental dyslexia?

No. Developmental dyslexia is present from childhood: the child has difficulty learning to read in the first place. Acquired dyslexia, also called alexia, is the loss of reading in someone who could already read, after a stroke, head injury or illness affecting the brain.

Deep dyslexia sits on the acquired side. It is a form of acquired dyslexia described in adults, and it is not a diagnosis a child with reading difficulty is given. When a website lists “deep dyslexia” or “trauma dyslexia” beside childhood types, it is mixing two different conditions. A child’s dyslexia is developmental, and it often runs in families, as the guide to what causes dyslexia explains.

Is visual dyslexia real?

Not as a type of dyslexia. “Visual dyslexia” is used in two ways, and neither holds up as a separate kind.

Some writers use it loosely for the surface pattern, because the child struggles to remember what words look like. That is a difficulty with storing written words, not with seeing them. Others use it for print that seems to blur, move or double. healthdirect, the Australian Government’s health information service, states that dyslexia is not caused by problems with eyesight, and that coloured glasses, coloured overlays and eye exercises do not treat it. A child who reports that print moves should have their eyes checked by an optometrist, because that is a vision question. The evidence on tinted lenses is set out in the guide to coloured overlays and dyslexia glasses.

Mixing up b and d does not point to a visual type either. The Lancet review reports that reversal errors in dyslexia are linguistic, not visual: they come from linking letters to sounds.

What is stealth dyslexia?

Stealth dyslexia is an informal term for dyslexia that goes unnoticed because a child’s strengths cover it. Brock and Fernette Eide, who introduced the term in 2005, used it for very able children who understand what they read well enough to hide slow, inaccurate word reading. The difficulty tends to surface in spelling and written work.

It is not a diagnosis, and no assessment report will use it. It is a useful reminder that a child who reads for meaning and scores well on comprehension can still have dyslexia.

What is the difference between mild and severe dyslexia?

Mild and severe dyslexia are points on one range, not different conditions. Researchers describe dyslexia as dimensional, with no clear cut-off between a child with mild dyslexia and a child who is a weak reader, in the way there is no sharp line for high blood pressure.

The American Psychiatric Association describes three levels by the support a person needs. Mild means difficulties that can often be managed with adjustments or support. Moderate means difficulties that usually need some specialised teaching. Severe means difficulties that need ongoing, intensive specialised teaching. Severity is a description of need at the time of assessment. It is not a prediction, and it does not change what kind of teaching works.

Which type of dyslexia does my child have?

Probably none of the names above, and that is fine. The label changes little about teaching, because the core of the teaching is the same for every child: explicit, structured teaching of how sounds and letters work, with a great deal of practice.

What does change the plan is which skills are weak, and by how much. For any one child that means:

how well they hear and work with the separate sounds in spoken words
how many letter and sound patterns they know and can use
how accurately they read single words, including words that break the rules
how fluently they read connected text
how they spell
their vocabulary and understanding of spoken language

Two children with the same label can differ on every line of that list. That is why Dr Lauren Crumlish, a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist, starts with an assessment of reading, spelling and the language skills underneath, and builds the teaching from what it shows. A formal diagnosis of dyslexia is usually made by a psychologist. How the teaching then runs is described on the page about reading help for children with dyslexia.