ADHD and dyslexia: the differences and the overlap

Page summary

ADHD and dyslexia can both make reading slow and tiring. When someone struggles with reading, it’s not always clear what is causing the difficulty. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects attention and self-management across daily life. Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that mainly affects word-level reading and spelling. Both are lifelong neurodevelopmental differences that change how people focus, organise and work with written language. They often occur together, and each has its own assessment route and its own support. AuDHD Psychiatry assesses ADHD and autism for adults and children living in the UK.

• OVERVIEW
• SYMPTOMS
• ADULTS
• CHILDREN
• WOMEN
• DIAGNOSIS
• TREATMENT
• MEDICATION

At AuDHD Psychiatry, we assess ADHD and autism, and reading difficulties often come up in those assessments. We created this guide to explain how ADHD and dyslexia overlap and how they differ. It also covers what to do if you recognise yourself or someone you support. Our aim is to provide you with a clear, balanced overview and to highlight when a specialist assessment can help.

Key Takeaways

• ADHD and dyslexia are different conditions, but they often overlap and affect reading, organisation, and confidence.
• ADHD mainly affects attention and executive function, while dyslexia mainly affects word-level reading and spelling.
• Two separate assessments are needed to be sure: an ADHD assessment for attention, and a dyslexia assessment for reading and spelling.
• Targeted teaching, practical adjustments, and strengths-based ADHD support can reduce barriers at school, work, and home.

How Dyslexia and ADHD Can Look Similar

Dyslexia and ADHD can lead to very similar day-to-day struggles. Both can involve:

• Difficulty concentrating.
• A short attention span.
• Forgetfulness.
• Problems with organisation and time management.

People with either condition may also feel they’re always behind, miss details, and experience low self-esteem or anxiety as a result.

When it comes to reading and writing, the overlap is especially easy to miss. Both neurodevelopmental conditions can lead to slow, effortful reading, losing your place on the page and skipping words. Text-heavy tasks can leave you feeling mentally drained.

In dyslexia, this is usually because sounding out words, recognising them quickly, and spelling are genuinely harder. In ADHD, reading is often technically accurate, but symptoms like inattention and impulsivity get in the way. You rush, skim, skip punctuation or endings, or drift off mid-paragraph.

On the surface, a child in class who “can’t sit and focus on reading” may look the same. The main issue could be ADHD in children, dyslexia, or both together.

At work or university, the similarities continue. Adults with ADHD or dyslexia may find long emails, reports, and forms unusually tiring. They may make spelling or grammar errors, or struggle to organise their writing and meet deadlines.

For girls, the picture is even more blurred. Signs of ADHD in women often centre on quieter, inattentive traits such as distraction, disorganisation, and mental “fog”. These are easily misread as stress, anxiety, or “just not being on top of things”.

Both ADHD and dyslexia can affect attention, reading, memory, and confidence. So you can’t reliably tell them apart just by watching how someone behaves. Careful assessment helps untangle whether the main difficulty is attention, reading skills, or both.

ADHD vs. Dyslexia: What’s the Difference?

Dyslexia and ADHD may look similar from the outside, but they affect learning in different ways. Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that mainly affects reading and spelling, as the British Dyslexia Association defines it [1]. ADHD affects attention and executive function (planning, working memory, self-organisation), while dyslexia impacts word-level reading and spelling (decoding, fluency, phonological processing).

Here’s a quick guide to help you tell the two apart. The first table covers the common reading challenges.

What’s hard about reading	ADHD	Dyslexia
Reading accuracy	Often accurate at the single-word level, but may rush, skip words or punctuation, or lose place on the page.	Inaccurate or slow word reading; misreads or guesses words, struggles with sounding out (decoding).
Reading speed and fluency	Can be slow due to focus drift, or fast and “skimming,” with missed details; pace is affected by attention and motivation.	Typically slow, effortful, dysfluent reading; has to work hard to lift each word off the page.
Comprehension	Often weaker comprehension of what’s read, especially longer or dense text, due to inattention and working-memory limits.	Comprehension may be better when material is heard than when reading alone, because so much effort goes into decoding the words.
Mental effort	Reading can feel boring, hard to stick with, or mentally “foggy” because sustaining focus is difficult.	Reading can feel exhausting because decoding and spelling are genuinely harder, leading to fatigue and frustration.

The second table shows what tests look for.

What tests look for	ADHD	Dyslexia
Core focus	Patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity and their impact across settings (home, school, work).	Persistent difficulties in word reading accuracy, reading fluency, decoding and spelling, sometimes with reading comprehension.
How it’s assessed	Clinical interview, history, and behaviour rating scales completed by the person and people who know them (e.g., parents, teachers, partner).	Standardised reading and spelling tests, phonological awareness tasks, and sometimes working-memory / processing-speed measures.
Main questions	Are ADHD symptoms present from childhood, in more than one setting, and causing a significant impact on daily life?	Are reading and spelling skills significantly below what would be expected for age, education and overall ability, despite appropriate teaching?

Some people can read aloud smoothly but often can’t remember or make sense of what they’ve read. In that case, attention and working-memory difficulties (as in ADHD) may be playing a larger role. If sounding out words and recognising common words are hard from the start, that points more towards dyslexia.

If you’d like to talk it through first, you can book a free 15-minute call with AuDHD Psychiatry. It’s an information call, not an assessment.

Can You Have ADHD and Dyslexia Together?

Yes. ADHD and dyslexia can occur on their own, but they also frequently appear together [4].

When these neurodevelopmental conditions co-occur, difficulties with reading, organisation, and focus can compound. Children and adults may need significantly more time and effort to manage reading-intensive tasks, follow instructions, and keep up with written work. This can increase fatigue, school or work stress, and a sense of always “falling behind”. Many environments rely on fast, accurate reading.

The emotional impact is often greater as well. Both conditions are associated with higher rates of anxiety, low self-esteem, and sometimes school avoidance or disengagement. This is especially so when struggles are misunderstood as laziness or lack of effort. Recognising when both conditions are present means these difficulties can be named accurately and supported, rather than blamed on the person.

Alongside these challenges, many people with ADHD and dyslexia also show real strengths in creativity, problem-solving, verbal communication, big-picture thinking, and empathy. With a clear understanding of both conditions, support can focus on reducing barriers through targeted interventions and accommodations. It can also build on these strengths and encourage self-advocacy at school, work, and home.

How ADHD and Dyslexia Are Assessed

ADHD and dyslexia are assessed by different specialists, in two separate assessments. AuDHD Psychiatry assesses ADHD only: we don’t assess dyslexia, and our report doesn’t cover it. An ADHD assessment is a clinical assessment by a psychologist, psychiatrist or specialist nurse. It takes a detailed history, asks about school or work performance, and uses behaviour rating scales. The scales are completed by you and by people who know you well.

A dyslexia diagnosis comes from a specialist assessor, not a doctor [2]. In the UK that is usually a specialist teacher holding an assessment practising certificate, or a qualified psychologist [2][3]. The assessor uses standardised tests of reading, spelling and related skills such as decoding, reading fluency, and phonological awareness. The second table above sets the two side by side.

The goal is to understand whether ADHD, dyslexia, or both are present, and to rule out other explanations for the person’s difficulties. Looking at these results side by side helps clinicians see whether attention problems, reading difficulties, or both are driving the person’s struggles. They can then recommend a mix of supports and accommodations that fits.

Living With ADHD, Dyslexia or Both

Getting the right mix of literacy teaching, practical adjustments, and ADHD support can make day-to-day life much more manageable. Support works best when it shows up across all settings (school, work, and home). It works less well when it relies on the person to try harder on their own.

At School

Teachers and support staff can reduce barriers by:

• Adjusting how pupils access text: For example, using audiobooks, text-to-speech tools, or read-aloud support so learners can work at their understanding level, even if reading is slower.
• Changing how information is presented: Giving printed notes or slides instead of long copying tasks, using clear step-by-step instructions, and breaking assignments into smaller chunks.
• Building skills directly: Providing evidence-based reading intervention (such as structured literacy approaches) for dyslexia, alongside classroom strategies that support attention and organisation.

These adjustments help children take part in lessons, show what they know, and experience success, not just effort.

At Work

Adults with ADHD and/or dyslexia often benefit from formal reasonable adjustments. Helpful changes can include:

• Tools and technology: Text-to-speech, speech-to-text, spell-check and proofreading software, or screen readers to reduce the load of long documents.
• Tweaks to the work environment: Quieter spaces, permission to wear headphones, written follow-up after meetings, and clear task priorities.
• Access to Work for ADHD and similar schemes: In the UK, Access to Work can fund specialist equipment, coaching, and other support for people with ADHD or dyslexia. The aim is to help them stay in employment.

These adjustments don’t lower expectations; they change the conditions so people can use their abilities more effectively.

At Home

Families can create routines that reduce pressure and build confidence. Here are a few examples:

• Short, predictable study blocks with regular movement breaks, instead of long, late-night sessions that end in overwhelm.
• Audiobooks or shared reading time so children and adults can enjoy stories, build vocabulary, and learn content. This works even when independent reading is slow.
• Supportive communication also helps. This includes acknowledging the effort involved, and separating a person’s worth from their school or work performance. It also means celebrating strengths such as creativity, problem-solving, spoken communication, or empathy.

Taken together, these forms of support can ease the load of ADHD and dyslexia. They also give people more chances to lean into the ways they naturally think and learn.

When you’re ready to look at the attention side, you can book an ADHD assessment with us online.

Frequently Asked Questions

When to Seek Support and What to Do Next

Does reading or written work feel much harder than you’d expect? Is focus or reading avoidance affecting your confidence? It may be time to seek support. You don’t need to be sure whether it’s ADHD, dyslexia, or both before asking for help.

A structured ADHD assessment and, where needed, a dyslexia or literacy evaluation can clarify what’s going on and what might help. At AuDHD Psychiatry, our clinicians assess ADHD and autism, including people who have both. Where reading looks like dyslexia, a separate dyslexia assessment is the next step. If you think both ADHD and autism apply to you, our combined AuDHD assessment looks at the two together. The aim is a clear plan, rather than trying to piece things together on your own.

Sources

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About AuDHD Psychiatry

AuDHD Psychiatry is the trading name of ADHDdegree Ltd, a company registered in Scotland. The company number is SC822923. Our registered office is 3f1 Third Floor, Hill Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3JP.

Registered with the ICO, number ZB823033.

Last updated: 13 October 2026