Clarity About Dyslexia: Challenging the Recently Resurrected Myths

Dyslexia has been in the news recently. I have gone back and forth on whether I have a responsibility, as the owner of a tutoring company, to offer my perspective. I’ve taken some time to think it through, and I’ve come to a clear conclusion: I do have a responsibility to chime in. Before doing that, though, it’s worth stepping back and clarifying what my primary responsibilities are as the head of SuperTutors.

When families reach out for tutoring, the assumption is often the same: the student needs help understanding the material. Sometimes that is true. But just as often, it isn’t.

I stay away from lumping kids into categories, but at the same time, I’ve come to see that there are two very different types of students who seek academic support. They may look similar on a report card, but the underlying issue is fundamentally different, and the support they need is not the same.

The commonly understood group is made up of students who fit well within the structure of school. They understand expectations, process information in the way it is typically delivered, and can generally demonstrate what they know through tests, papers, and class participation. When these students struggle, it is usually because the content is difficult, the pace is fast, or the workload has increased. They need clarification, reinforcement, and thoughtful guidance to keep up.

This is the traditional understanding of tutoring, and it is an important one.

The other group is broad, less understood, and often misunderstood.

These students are often just as capable, and in many cases exceptionally capable, but the system does not naturally measure their strengths. They may understand the material at a high level but struggle to organize their thinking, complete written work efficiently, or perform consistently on tests. They are frequently described as “inconsistent,” “unfocused,” or “not working to potential.”

What is happening in these cases is not a lack of ability. It is a mismatch. These students do not just need help learning the material. They need help translating what they know into a form that the system recognizes and rewards.

That translation might involve building executive function skills, developing structured approaches to assignments, preparing effectively for assessments, or learning more effective ways to communicate understanding. It is a mistake (and a common one) when tutoring models treat these two groups the same.

With this understood, let’s turn to dyslexia. And as a best practice, we should not just understand the definition of dyslexia. We should try to understand what it means to be a dyslexic student.

Dyslexia is a learning difference that primarily affects reading, spelling, and written language processing, despite intelligence and access to instruction. It is rooted in how the brain processes language, often making it more difficult to decode words quickly and accurately while leaving other areas of thinking and reasoning intact or even strong.

What does it feel like to be a dyslexic student? I guess I’ll never know the full answer to that question, because I’m not dyslexic. But from my experience, I think I can accurately say this:

Being a dyslexic student feels like you are in a system that is not built for you. It means you understand more than you can easily show. You know the answers, but struggle to get them onto the page in the way the system expects. Your ability is questioned not because it is absent, but because it is not visible in the prescribed format. And over time, it becomes not just about learning the material, but about learning how to navigate, adapt to, and ultimately work through a system that was not designed with your way of thinking in mind.

In American schools today, here’s what students are expected to do:

• Read quickly

• Write under time pressure

• Stay organized

• Demonstrate understanding in structured formats

All of this is difficult for students with dyslexia.

And yet another myth begins to appear: The myth is that difficulty in these areas reflects a lack of intelligence.

Students with dyslexia are not lacking intelligence. They often have strong verbal reasoning, pattern recognition, and big-picture thinking. But because the system emphasizes everything listed above, their abilities are often underestimated.

And this brings me to where we are today, in the news.

One could read everything I just wrote and assume that dyslexic students struggle in school and then go on to struggle in the real world. That assumption is also a myth.

The reality is that, time after time, dyslexic students go on to become extraordinary members of society. It is because they learn to adapt, and in many cases, they develop a greater capacity to adapt than students who do not have dyslexia. They learn how to work around obstacles, how to think creatively, how to persist when things do not come easily. They develop resilience, improvisation, and problem-solving skills that are not always visible in a quiet classroom.

Any good tutoring company understands this. It is fundamental.

Traditional tutoring often focuses on helping students understand the material. That is important, and for many students, it is exactly what is needed. But for students experiencing a mismatch between how they think and how school measures performance, understanding the material is only part of the equation. They also need help translating their thinking.

This means helping a student take what they understand and express it clearly in writing. It means building systems for organization and time management. It means preparing for tests in a way that reflects both content and format. It also means recognizing when a student’s struggle is not a lack of ability, but a breakdown in how that ability is being demonstrated.

Perhaps most importantly, it means protecting confidence. We cannot have dyslexic students losing their confidence. We need dyslexic students. They are going to become leaders in society because they are resilient. They do not give up. They know how to adjust.

Students who are repeatedly misunderstood by the system often begin to question their own ability. A strong tutor does more than improve performance. A strong tutor helps the student see themselves accurately again. That is one of the reasons I am so proud to be the owner of a tutoring company. This work plays a meaningful role in developing future leaders.

The goal of tutoring is not simply to raise grades. It is to create alignment. Alignment in school becomes alignment in society. We are going to need these dyslexic students to become dyslexic leaders, so they can show what real stamina, energy, and determination look like.

Helping students become capable, confident adults is where the real value of my work lies. When we strip away the myths, we begin to see clearly how students actually succeed.

I cannot sit back and allow any false narrative to define the very students with whom I work. These are the students who go on to play essential roles in our society.

And that is why I wrote this.