QUESTION: Is it Possible to Have Both Dyslexia and Autism?

The short answer is yes, but it’s likely not very common and in general many of the features of dyslexia and autism are opposite. By strict criteria, low IQ and autism are excluded from the diagnosis of dyslexia. However, it is not difficult to speculate that a child with family dyslexia could also have autism either through inheritance or through some environmental factor. The main thing to consider is that it may be much more common that a child with dyslexia has social factors unrelated to autism or a child with autism has reading and writing problems unrelated to dyslexia. In fact, typically dyslexic and autistic children have different cognitive, memory, and perceptual patterns although they may have shared academic difficulties such as writing by hand.

There is an evolving scientific story that in many respects dyslexia and autism lie on opposite ends of the human connectivity spectrum and we will discuss this in more detail below for Premium Subscribers.