Can We Stop Calling Dyslexia a Superpower? Let’s Listen to the Child.
⚠️ CAUTION: I’m about to get a little data geek and a whole lot protective of kids’ feelings here. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.⚠️
There are books calling dyslexia a gift. Headlines calling it a superpower. Campaigns celebrating the extraordinary things people with dyslexia can accomplish.
And here I am thinking about the child who cried over reading last night.
The child who knows the answer but cannot read the question. The child who works twice as long on homework and still walks into school feeling behind. The adult who remembers, decades later, what it felt like to be the one who couldn’t keep up.
Can we please pause before telling that person what a wonderful gift they have?
I know the intention is usually kindness. We want children with dyslexia to feel capable, hopeful, and proud of who they are. We want to push back against the terrible idea that struggling to read means someone is less intelligent.
I want those things, too.
But I don’t hear many of the children and adults in my own life describing those experiences as a gift. That is my experience, rather than a claim about how everyone with dyslexia feels.
My concern is that, in our eagerness to make dyslexia sound positive, we can minimize the experience of the person living with it.
Where does the “gift” or “superpower” language come from?
This framing appears in books, headlines, and public campaigns. Here are a few examples:
Ronald D. Davis and Eldon M. Braun’s The Gift of Dyslexia, Revised and Expanded. Penguin Random House lists the revised edition as published in 2010. The gift language is central to its title and presentation.
Margaret Rooke’s Dyslexia Is My Superpower (Most of the Time), published in 2017. The publisher describes more than 100 interviews with children and young adults. These are young people sharing their perspectives, and the title’s qualification—“most of the time”—deserves acknowledgment.
Tara Loader Wilkinson’s article, “Dyslexia is ‘a superpower’, says Richard Branson. Learn how to use it to become successful,” published in the South China Morning Post on October 12, 2024.
The Press Association article, “Richard Branson says ‘dyslexia is a superpower’ as new campaign launches,”published by LBC on August 27, 2025. It reports on a campaign celebrating dyslexic entrepreneurs.
I am naming these examples because this language is widespread. A title or headline does not tell us everything about the work or its author’s intentions.
If someone with dyslexia finds strength in calling it their superpower, I respect their right to describe their own life.
But that description belongs to them. We should not expect every child with dyslexia to adopt it.
Here comes the data geek part
The International Dyslexia Association’s “Dyslexia Basics” fact sheet estimates that 15–20% of the population may have some symptoms of dyslexia. That is broader than a confirmed diagnosis; it does not mean 20% of people have formally diagnosed dyslexia. The same resource explains that dyslexia can affect self-image and leave students feeling less capable than they are.
Research also gives us reason to pay attention to the emotional experience.
In “The association between poor reading and internalising problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis,”Deanna A. Francis and colleagues examined 34 studies involving 16,275 participants, including 2,491 poor readers. Published in 2019, the analysis found higher anxiety and depression symptoms among poor readers than typical readers, with a larger difference for anxiety. This research concerns poor reading broadly, rather than exclusively diagnosed dyslexia.
A larger review published in 2024, “Internalizing problems in individuals with reading, mathematics and unspecified learning difficulties: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” by Ana Paula Alves Vieira and colleagues, included 96 studies and 83,260 participants. It found moderately higher levels of difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal among people with learning difficulties compared with same-age peers. This review covers several kinds of learning difficulties.
These studies do not mean every child with dyslexia will struggle emotionally. They also do not establish that “superpower” language causes harm.
They do tell us that the emotional concerns surrounding learning difficulties deserve serious attention.
A child should not have to be grateful for struggling
Imagine spending your school day working to keep up, then coming home to more reading practice while other children have finished their homework.
Imagine having wonderful ideas but needing someone to help you get them onto paper. Imagine worrying that the teacher might ask you to read aloud.
Now imagine explaining how hard that feels and hearing, “But it’s your superpower!”
An adult may mean, “You have so much to offer.”
A child may hear, “You aren’t supposed to feel this upset.”
That is the disconnect I want us to consider.
A child can love who they are and wish reading were easier. An adult can value their life and still grieve the years spent feeling misunderstood. Neither person owes us gratitude for the struggle.
I think about how many people would gladly give back the shame, the exhausting homework battles, and the years of wondering whether they were smart enough. We should leave room for them to say that.
Children also do not need to become famous entrepreneurs, brilliant inventors, or unusually gifted artists to make their experience worthy of respect. Their worth was never waiting for an exceptional achievement.
Celebrate the child’s actual strengths
Anyone who knows me knows how much joy I find in a reading breakthrough, a hard-earned milestone, or the moment a child realizes, “I can do this.”
I also want to celebrate the funny storyteller, the thoughtful friend, the animal lover, the curious builder, and the child who asks questions that make me stop and think.
Those strengths deserve to be noticed because they belong to that particular child. We can name them specifically without assuming every person with dyslexia shares the same talents.
And we can acknowledge difficulty plainly:
“You are working hard, and I can see this is frustrating.”
“Reading difficulty does not tell me how smart you are.”
“You can tell me what this feels like. I will listen.”
“Let’s figure out what support would help.”
Those words leave room for honesty. They also lead somewhere useful.
Hope needs to come with help
At My Learning Farm, I want children to feel understood while they build the skills they need. That means individualized instruction, clear explanations, supported practice, and time to recognize progress.
It also means listening when a child says something is hard.
The International Dyslexia Association emphasizes systematic, explicit instruction and appropriate supports for students with dyslexia. Encouragement matters, and children need teaching that addresses their learning needs.
If your child is struggling with reading or spelling, you do not have to find a cheerful label before reaching out. You can start exactly where you are: worried, frustrated, uncertain, or ready for a different approach.
At My Learning Farm in Penryn, California, I offer specialized academic instruction to help students build reading, writing, spelling, and math skills. I also offer homeschool consultations for parents who want help thinking through curriculum, pacing, daily routines, and a learning plan that better fits their child.
Whether you are already homeschooling or wondering whether a different educational setting might help, we can talk through your concerns and identify practical next steps.
Your child deserves to feel capable. Your child deserves meaningful support. And your child deserves to tell us what dyslexia feels like—without being asked to call it a gift.
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