If you’ve been researching dyslexia for any length of time, you’ve probably encountered terms like:
- phonological dyslexia
- rapid naming deficits
- double deficit
- processing weaknesses
And if you’re like most parents I work with, your next thought is usually:
“Do I need to figure out exactly which type of dyslexia my child has before I can teach them well?”
Let me bring you some immediate relief:
You do not need a perfectly labeled child to build a successful homeschool.
But understanding how dyslexia shows up does help you make wiser decisions — and wise decisions are what create clarity.
After more than 30 years of homeschooling my own children with dyslexia and helping thousands of parents do the same, I’ve learned this:
Confusion keeps parents stuck.
Clarity moves children forward.
So let’s clear this up.
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a brain-based learning difference that primarily affects reading accuracy, spelling, and fluency.
It is:
✔ neurological
✔ often genetic
✔ unrelated to intelligence
✔ not caused by poor parenting
✔ not the result of lazy students
One of the most important shifts in modern research is the recognition that dyslexia exists on a continuum.
There is no single “dyslexic profile.”
Instead, children show different combinations of strengths and struggles — which explains why your child may look very different from another dyslexic learner.
This is normal.
And for homeschoolers, this is actually good news — because you have the freedom to tailor your child’s education around how they learn best.
Are There Actually Different Types of Dyslexia?
Here is where I want to simplify something that often becomes unnecessarily complicated.
You may read conflicting opinions about dyslexia types. Some experts prefer the word profiles rather than strict categories because dyslexia is rarely caused by just one weakness.
But research consistently points to recognizable patterns in how children struggle to learn to read.
Understanding these patterns isn’t about putting your child in a box.
It’s about answering a far more helpful question:
What kind of instruction will help my child the most right now?
When parents shift their thinking this way, overwhelm begins to fade — and clarity begins to grow.
The Three Most Common Dyslexia Learning Profiles
While every child is unique, most reading difficulties fall into one (or more) of these areas.
1. Phonological Weakness
(The most common contributor to dyslexia)
Children with phonological weaknesses struggle to connect sounds to letters.
You might notice:
- difficulty sounding out words
- inconsistent spelling
- slow reading progress
- guessing at words
These students do not learn well through exposure alone.
They need explicit, systematic reading instruction — the kind that teaches the structure of language step by step.
This is why structured literacy is considered the gold standard for dyslexic learners.
If reading feels unusually hard for your child, this is often the place to start.
2. Rapid Naming Weakness
(When reading never becomes automatic)
Some children eventually learn to decode accurately — but reading remains painfully slow.
This is often connected to rapid automatized naming, or the brain’s ability to quickly retrieve language.
You might see:
- laborious oral reading
- strong comprehension when listening
- fatigue during reading
- avoidance of longer texts
These students benefit tremendously from:
- repeated practice
- fluency work
- audiobooks alongside print
- patience while automaticity develops
Progress may be slower — but it absolutely comes.
3. Double Deficit Dyslexia
(When both areas are affected)
When phonological processing and naming speed are both weak, reading can feel extraordinarily difficult.
Parents sometimes panic when they realize their child is working harder than peers.
Let me reassure you:
Severity does not predict success.
Instruction does.
With the right teaching and realistic expectations, these students make meaningful progress every year.
I have watched it happen again and again.
What Causes Dyslexia?
Modern research is very clear on this:
Dyslexia is multifactorial.
It is influenced by a combination of:
- brain development
- genetics
- language processing differences
- memory systems
- processing speed
This explains why dyslexia often overlaps with things like ADHD or executive function challenges.
And it explains something else that I want every parent to hear:
You did not cause this.
But you can become the steady guide your child needs.
The Mistake That Keeps Parents Stuck
Many parents believe they must identify the exact type of dyslexia before moving forward.
So they research.
And research.
And research some more.
Meanwhile, their homeschool becomes filled with uncertainty.
Let me gently redirect you:
You do not need perfect information to begin making excellent decisions.
Instead of asking:
“Which kind of dyslexia does my child have?”
Ask:
Where is my child struggling most?
Are we using instruction that matches that need?
Is progress happening — even if slowly?
Those questions create momentum.
What This Means for Your Homeschool
Homeschooling a child with dyslexia is genuinely more complex than traditional education.
The strategies that matter most often look nothing like the school models many of us grew up with.
But here is the encouraging truth:
When you understand your child’s learning profile, you stop chasing every curriculum recommendation…
…and start building a homeschool that actually works.
A homeschool that:
- prioritizes reading progress
- protects emotional health
- moves at a sustainable pace
- builds independence gradually
- focuses on what matters most
This is what I call teaching with clarity.
And clarity changes everything.
Finding Clarity in Your Dyslexia Homeschool Journey
Over the years, I’ve noticed something powerful:
The parents who thrive are not the ones who know the most research.
They are the ones who know what to prioritize.
Because once you know your priorities:
You stop comparing.
You stop overloading your child.
You stop second-guessing every decision.
Instead…
You lead your homeschool with quiet confidence.
Not perfectly.
But wisely.
If you feel unsure right now, please hear this:
Dyslexia may complicate the path.
But clarity makes the path visible.
And you absolutely can do this.
The Question I Want You to Leave With
Not:
“What type of dyslexia does my child have?”
But:
“What does my child need next?”
That single shift moves you from confusion → direction.
And direction is what creates progress.
Always.
Want Help Finding That Direction?
If you’re tired of wondering whether you’re focusing on the right things in your homeschool, the next step is gaining clarity about your child’s real priorities.
Because when you know what matters most…
Everything else becomes lighter.
Imagine knowing exactly what your child needs next — and feeling confident about your homeschool again.
That is exactly what Reboot Lite was created to help you do. In this self-paced class, I’ll guide you through the same clarity framework I’ve used with thousands of families so you can stop guessing and start moving forward.
If you’re tired of second-guessing your homeschool decisions and wondering whether you’re focusing on the right things, this is your next step.
FAQs
Dyslexia does not have officially recognized medical subtypes, but researchers identify different learning profiles based on how reading difficulties show up. The most common patterns include phonological weaknesses, rapid naming difficulties, and a combination of both. Understanding these profiles helps parents choose effective instruction, even without a precise label.
The most common reading difficulty associated with dyslexia is a phonological processing weakness. This affects a child’s ability to connect sounds to letters, making decoding and spelling challenging. Structured, explicit reading instruction is highly effective for supporting this type of dyslexia.
No. Parents do not need a specific dyslexia subtype to homeschool effectively. What matters most is identifying where a child is struggling and prioritizing instruction that supports reading progress, emotional health, and long-term independence. Clear priorities matter more than perfect labels.
So I would say both of our sons are the first kind of dyslexic. Both had decoding problems early on and any comprehension problems are totally related to reading. But even though they seem to both fall under the same ‘type’ of dyslexia, I still see it manifest in them in SUCH different ways. Older son (16) really doesn’t like reading (unless it’s something amazingly good – and even then it’s a stretch) and he struggles with spelling often but can get pretty close. But he’s been dealing with this for a longer time now and his grades (he’s at the local high school) have improved greatly this year as he’s so much more motivated to do well for after high school (wants to join the USAF as a tactical aircraft maintenance specialist.) Our younger son (11) seems to be more profoundly dyslexic – spelling is REALLY bad and he actually has a terrible time with reversals (older son has no reversals issue.) However, the younger one loves books and has been reading for pleasure lately. We homeschool the younger one because he was having huge anxiety issues at school and I really think it was mostly because of his dyslexia. All of this fascinates me…
Our kids are all different as well, Janine. I find it fascinating how each person with dyslexia is different as well!
Hi,
When I was diagnosed with Dyslexia at age 19yrs, over 20 years ago now, they wrote in the report that I had ‘sequential’ dyslexia and they qualified that by explaining that some people had ‘word blindness’. This seemed to make sense to me as I have trouble with keeping the correct ‘order’ to information whether it be auditory or visual and this affects lots of things not just my literacy skills – I spend a lot of time catching the wrong bus, ringing the wrong number and going to appointments at on the wrong day! However I love to read and have much less trouble with reading than with writing, spelling, mental arithmetic, time keeping etc.
This is so interesting, Nicky, thank you for your comment. My son struggles with the same things you noted and also LOVES to read (and reads above grade level average), so I wondered how in the world he could be dyslexic.
This website has helped profoundly with understanding more about dyslexia…I realize now it’s such a huge topic. Thank you, Marianne!
Just curious to know if you have read “The Gift of Dyslexia” by Davis and “The Dyslexic Advantage.” by Eide. The 2nd title is super helpful in understanding the types of Dyslexia.
Hi Connie. I have read both of them. I love how “The Dyslexic Advantage” explains the different types of giftings of dyslexia. Their work with dyslexia revolutionized the way many people view dyslexia switching from a weakness-based definition to a strengths-based definition. Love it!
Hi Marianne,
We just had our son evaluated and the report came back saying he was “severely deficient” in some areas. Is that the same as “profoundly dyslexic”? His scores all hit in High Risk with a Frustration Reading Level of 83%.
I don’t see Orthographic Dyslexia on your list yet you do refer to it when referring to the “factors”. My daughter has been diagnosed with Orthographic Dyslexia-And yes this is more in the visual realm but it doesn’t always mean there will be an issue with comprehension. My daughters phonics are in the superior range as is her general ability index (or IQ-if you want to refer to it as that for general terms) She’s 2E to be exact-twice exceptional= a Gifted Dyslexic. This means that due to her high verbal ability and her general “smarts ;)” she could skim text and while she couldn’t read it all she gained enough info to have comprehension rate in the 85th percentile. All the while her fluency testing put her at a 1% reading rate. The savior for her was us pulling her from public school to homeschool ( as public school would not acknowledge her giftedness nor her dyslexia ) and we have been working with her in the Linda Mood-Bell Seeing Starts program. Something I don’t see you mention in this article. I encourage you to look into this as it is a wonderful and very necessary program for remediating “visual” dyslexics. So while MIT is certainly a reliable source of researchers…they are missing the boat. Like all the ADHD kiddos and Asperger kiddos NO 2 dyslexics are alike either. I would like to see us stop generalizing “types” and really looking at the individual needs of all these special learners. Thanks for continuing to support the homeschooling dyslexic families like me who enjoy your site!
To Caren, who commented on August 21, 2017
My granddaughter has also been diagnosed with orthographic dyslexia. I “raised her” from birth to kindergarten, or more correctly, I was the live-in nanny. So I know her well. She is smart, brilliant in some ways, but always had difficulty reading.
You commented about the article, “So while MIT is certainly a reliable source of researchers…they are missing the boat. Like all the ADHD kiddos and Asperger kiddos NO 2 dyslexics are alike either.” However, the article does say, “No two people with dyslexia will have the exact same learning profile.”
— My frustration is how it seems no two ARTICLES say the same thing about dyslexia. Extremely few mention orthographic dyslexia at all and they disagree on the types they Do Mention. Scientists and publishers desperately need to get their heads together. Parents and teachers can be harming our kids when source information is Bad.
I have Aspergers, which may be increasing in my older years. I also now have new neurological problems perhaps related to auto-immune conditions and having shingles in my brain constantly. [It also went into one eye, causing blurred vision from scarring and then Iritis.] I have to self-diagnose things as our medical system does not seen to cater for people with several health conditions coming together.
One of my frustrations is the same as Steve Millers. Things are complex. I found that on top of my possibly auto-immune narcolepsy, I have idiopathic hypersomnolence. So, I’ve always had problems waking, and not being able then to concentrate if I’m not fully awake. This now will be called ADD [adult onset]. So, this means I’m starting to get dates wrong, forgetting that the appointment time had been changed. I call it ‘penultimate memory’. I remember the second last thing that happens.
This is so bad now, I can’t know if I just had taken medicine, or just thought about taking it. My carer is heading towards dementia, and we have to work hard together to find ways of remembering – like [silly] little rhymes that stick in ones head. For one persons name, I make an action like rowing a boat. His name is Rowan. I can’t remember Johns! But like dyslexia, Jim becomes Bill, and Liz becomes Jill, and my neighbour here just looks like a Michael. He just doesn’t look like a Phil.
Apart from this, I remember quite a lot of what people have said – that they have no memory of. At university, I could not recount what the guy was talking about on a Ted Talks YouTube. [So, I had to quit those classes. I have a visual memory. So, I think I can do maths etc. for civil engineering – where all the information is on one page – without distractions. It’s amazing that I can write now, as so many advertisements are flashing. I really can’t stand how the Internet does this. It already takes too much time to write this. I wasn’t looking for this site. I saw the word Dyslexia, and I just get distracted – I’m interested in most things. This isn’t what I set out to do.
The modern world with so many distractions is perhaps a problem for most people. I can’t stand this sans serif font. I wonder if it is getting harder for many people today to read. At school, I could only get through reading science fiction, or about interesting facts in the science realm.
People made no sense to me, so I study them. I took on linguistics, as I wanted to communicate better. I’m not Australian, but my sister said we should not say that.
A problem with sub-types of dyslexia is that we might think we can’t do anything till we’ve gotten an exhaustive evaluation, thereby wasting valuable time when early intervention is so important. Another problem is that often nothing is pure. The most obvious problem might be auditory, but there could be subtle problems with the other modalities and with the relationships between the modalities. Whatever we do, we are dealing with four modalities: eyes, ears, hands, and speech. The important thing is to get started with letter-sounds and with using the letter sounds. The subtle strengths and weaknesses will emerge and help you to write good reports to the parents, but meanwhile you are proceeding, and proceeding is the most important thing.
Dyslexia is an advantage. It is just a shame our education system is not set up to train dyslexic children appropriately. The system spends the first years making dyslexic children feel inadequate by attempting to teach them to spell when they can not and not fully stretching their critical thinking skills which they have in abundance. Then when the children are full sure they are useless and worthless the system changes… (in secondary school) But by then the damage is done. Who cares about spelling? I don’t. But for the small minded people who have made my educational life hell over my early years I make the effort as they are too stupid to understand I have good points to make with out me helping them get over this hurdle! Not that I have a chip on my shoulder or anything!