Can a Child Have Both DLD and Dyslexia?

Yes — and discovering both at once isn't double the worry; it's double the clarity about how to help your child.

In short

Yes, a child can absolutely have both Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Dyslexia — in fact the two often travel together. DLD affects how a child understands and uses spoken language; dyslexia affects how they decode written words and spell. Because spoken-language skills are part of the foundation for reading, children with DLD have a higher chance of also finding reading difficult, and vice versa. The good news: when both are recognised together, support can be tailored precisely rather than tackling one and missing the other.

Why they overlap

Language is the soil that reading grows from. A child who struggles to process the sounds in spoken words, to build vocabulary, or to follow grammar (the heart of DLD) may carry those same challenges into reading and spelling (the heart of dyslexia). Researchers describe these as co-occurring rather than the same condition — they share some roots but are distinct profiles. This is why a child might speak in shorter, simpler sentences and find sounding out written words effortful. Each needs its own targeted strategies, even when they appear in the same child.

What this means for support

• A child with both benefits from joined-up support — speech and language work for understanding and expression, alongside structured literacy approaches for reading and spelling.
• Recognising the overlap early prevents the common trap of treating only the reading difficulty while the underlying language gap continues quietly.
• Progress is often steadier when both profiles are mapped together from the start, so therapy targets reinforce one another.

The Pinnacle way

A clinical AbilityScore® and any diagnosis are formed only at a Pinnacle Blooms Network centre, under qualified clinician care — never from an online form or an app. Our clinicians look at the whole child, so a co-occurring language and literacy profile is seen as one connected picture, not two separate problems. Explore how we can help through speech therapy, understand the starting point with the AbilityScore, or begin at our home page.

Trusted sources

ASHA guidance on developmental language disorder and its links to literacy; WHO ICD-11 framework for neurodevelopmental conditions; NICE guidance on supporting children with language and learning needs.

Next step — If your child is finding both talking and reading harder than expected, book an assessment with a Pinnacle clinician to map the full picture in one place.

This is general information, not a diagnosis — individual assessment and diagnosis require an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.