Peer-reviewed research
Understanding Dyslexia in the Context of Developmental Language Disorders
Suzanne M. Adlof, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (ASHA), 2018 · DOI 10.1044/2018_LSHSS-DYSLC-18-0049
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- A review article, published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's school-focused journal, that treats dyslexia as a language-based disorder. It summarizes evidence on phonological skills, word-level reading and spelling, and how dyslexia overlaps with developmental language disorder.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed and open access, written by a researcher in the field. It is a narrative review, not a meta-analysis, so it summarizes the evidence rather than pooling effect sizes. Its statements about 'on average' describe groups of children, not individuals.
Facts taken from this source
- A 2018 review says there is abundant evidence that children with dyslexia, on average, perform poorly on phonological tasks, including phoneme awareness, word and nonword repetition, and word retrieval.
“There is now an abundance of evidence that children with dyslexia, on average, perform poorly on tasks that involve phonology including phoneme awareness, word and nonword repetition, and word retrieval” (Article text)
- A 2018 review defines dyslexia as a difficulty with word-level reading and spelling skills, which it says are in turn caused by phonological deficits.
“dyslexia is defined as a difficulty with word level reading and spelling skills, which are in turn caused by phonological deficits” (Article text)