Autism vs Dyslexia

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Does anyone have a good explanation for how autism and dyslexia are different from each other? And similar? In some ways they seem opposite, and then I also see a lot on their co-morbidity. The more I read the more I get confused.

That's like asking "whats the difference between Roman Catholicism, and giraffes?".

The two things are not even comparable.

Dyslexia is a one symptom condition: you transpose letters in written words (and sometimes syllables in spoken word). This causes you to not be able to read, or write.

Autism is a bigger condition with many possible presentations and symptoms: like impaired social skills, and special interests, meltdowns, lack of executive skills, etc. One can have both, or just one, or just the other, or neither.

naturalplastic is right that they are two very different conditions that are identified by different behaviours.

There are also various similarities as they are both lifetime developmental conditions with no known biological link and only diagnosed through observation of an individuals condition.

There is evidence that they may be linked somehow as if an individual is diagnosed with one there is a higher chance of them being diagnosed with the other (co-morbidity). This is also the case with ADHD and dyspraxia. However, there is no clear understanding of why this is.

It might be that being assessed for one means that people are more likely to put themselves forward to be assessed for another but I personally think that the two are far more closely related. As a teacher, I think a lot of the children I see with dyslexic tendencies also show autistic tendencies although the reverse is not true. Which leads me to suspect that the two are very closely linked.

Unfortunately, there is a tiny amount of research in this area so there are unlikely to be any real answers soon.

While this used to be the common concept, understanding has moved on a bit. Have a read of this:

Dyslexia, dyspraxia, and ADHD in adults: what you need to know



As above, the research of links and overlaps with other conditions still need more work.

OP I suggest that you make comparative lists or do a mind map type of layout for yourself, it could help to show some connections that might not be obvious.

Dyslexia and autism don't have much in common. Dyspraxia and autism do however.

Dyspraxia and dyslexia are so similar they were considered to be the same condition for a very long time and they are commonly confused.

If you look at the behaviours for autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia and ADHD there are considerable overlaps between them all.

It seems we are all confused even here.

Yes, this is more like what I was thinking about--not outward symptoms but the fact that they are both processing differences. I was thinking, do they come from the same neurological source but how they present gives different labels? They seem the same in that both groups have a tendency to think visually. Both have difficulties with verbal and visual memory skills, and motor skills. Both seem to have to do a lot of internal translating to make information meaningful. Both can have social and emotional issues from the frustrations of the above processing challenges.

Both have sensory issues. Autistics can be hyper or hypo and melt down. Dyslexics can't process info fast enough and get overwhelmed with background noise or stimuli. Those could be different perspectives of the same thing depending on who is explaining it.

Autism is usually associated with bottom up learning: taking in sensory info or researching a lot of info first, then putting the pieces together to come to a conclusion. Dyslexia is usually associated with extreme top down learning: needing the hollistic big picture first, then using imagination to fit the details together to make meaning. Those seem opposite and I can't see how they could be co-morbid which is where my mind is getting stuck. Or maybe it's just the words top-down that are the problem. If you are learning bottom up, you would need to have the big picture provided at some point in order to make meaningful connections between the bits of info. So now they sound the same again.

That also brings up the idea for me that maybe adhd and dyslexia are the same thing. Too much information going on internally so outwardly distracted and unable to process external directions.