Dyslexia Dropped Its IQ Rule in 2025. “Testing Too High” Should Have Retired With It.

Last updated: August 9, 2026

The reading group met in a book closet. That was reading support in the 1980s for a girl named Sabrina. Three children sat in a storage room between classrooms, reading “the dog and the cat like to play fetch” while classmates read chapter books. Forty years later she is a vice president at the International Dyslexia Association. Then a school told her that her own first grader was testing too high for a dyslexia evaluation. Different decade, same belief: a bright child who struggles to read gets treated as a contradiction instead of a signal. Your child isn’t broken; their brain is learning differently, and the definition of dyslexia itself now backs that up.

TL;DR

The International Dyslexia Association adopted a new definition of dyslexia in October 2025. It drops the old discrepancy idea. The researchers behind it say those approaches lack predictive validity, so strong scores do not rule out dyslexia.
The 2025 definition says early language and literacy support works best. Waiting for second grade is the opposite of caution.
In the United States, a parent has the right to ask the school in writing for an evaluation, at no cost. A refusal must come in writing, with reasons, and a wait-and-see program is not a lawful reason to delay, per the federal Office of Special Education Programs in 2011.
An outside evaluation handed to a district must be considered, and it often restarts a stalled process, as it did for the family in this video.
Swap page-count reading challenges for hour-count ones. Hours reward showing up, so a slower reader competes on equal terms.

FROM THE VIDEO

Key moments from Advocating for Dyslexic Students with Sabrina Fandell of the International Dyslexia Association and host Carolyn Kiel:

Her father banned her from using her own 504 accommodations, and the same argument returned a generation later at her kitchen table. Watch at 07:00
The school meeting where “testing too high” blocked a first grader’s dyslexia evaluation. Watch at 19:41
The reading-challenge swap that protects a slower reader: 200 hours instead of 200 pages. Watch at 24:34

Common questions from parents

The school says my child is testing too high for a dyslexia evaluation. Is that a real rule?

No. The International Dyslexia Association dropped that idea from its 2025 definition. The researchers who led the revision state that discrepancy approaches lack predictive validity. A capable child who struggles with reading is the expected picture, not a contradiction.

Is first grade too early to check for dyslexia?

No. The 2025 definition says language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective. Help matters at any age. The early years are where it lands hardest.

What are my options if the school refuses to evaluate my child?

In the United States, put your request in writing and keep a dated copy. The school evaluation is free to your family. A district that refuses must say so in writing, with reasons, and a wait-and-see program is not a lawful ground for delay. If the process stalls, an outside evaluation handed to the school must be considered. Parent groups like the International Dyslexia Association offer checklists, advocates, and hotlines.

Do accommodations lower the bar for my child?

Ask a different question: is this support building the skill, or replacing the expectation that it gets built? A shortened spelling list that keeps daily practice alive is building the skill. The child is working as hard as classmates with the full list. The point was never accommodations, yes or no. It is whether each support keeps the skill growing.

A first grader was refused a dyslexia evaluation for testing too high. The field's own 2025 definition retired that reasoning. Here is what to say when a school tells you to wait. Tweet Now Follow Learning Success

The Same Argument, One Generation Apart

In the 1990s, Sabrina’s father refused to let her use the extra test time her 504 plan allowed. “You think your boss is gonna give you more time to finish your assignments?” Thirty years later, she watched her husband do the same thing. Their son’s spelling list had been shortened: ten words for the class, five for him. He has to learn all ten, her husband insisted. Same fear, new kitchen.

Her answer is the one worth keeping. It is not less effort. Learning five words demands as much from her son as ten demand from his classmates, sometimes more. She watches him spell a word correctly on Monday, differently on Tuesday, then stall on Wednesday. He remembers that one version was right, but not which one. That is a child searching for an anchor that has not formed yet, not a child ducking work. A shorter list levels the effort. It does not lower the bar.

So skip the yes-or-no fight about accommodations. Ask a sharper question instead: is this support building the skill, or replacing the expectation that it gets built? A shortened list that keeps daily spelling practice alive is building. A support that quietly removes the skill from the child’s day is not. That question travels to every support a school offers. It settles kitchen-table arguments better than any speech about the real world.

Author Quote "

A shorter list levels the effort. It does not lower the bar.

Laura Lurns Learning Success Expert

"Language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective." - International Dyslexia Association, 2025 definition of dyslexia

“Testing Too High” Is a Retired Idea

When her son’s first-grade teacher flagged likely dyslexia, the family sat down with the school. They heard two reasons to do nothing. He was testing too high. And first grade was too early, since children are not expected to read until second grade anyway. So: no evaluation.

Both reasons are scripts, and the field that defines dyslexia has retired the first one outright. In October 2025, the International Dyslexia Association adopted its first new definition of dyslexia since 2002. The new definition drops the old idea that the difficulty must look “unexpected” next to a child’s other abilities. The researchers who led the revision, Catts, Haynes and Joshi, gave the reason in plain terms in 2026: discrepancy approaches lack predictive validity. In parent language, strong scores were never a reason to rule out dyslexia. Struggling to read says nothing about how smart your child is. A capable child who struggles with reading is the expected picture, not a contradiction.

The second script fares no better. The same definition closes by saying that language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective. Waiting for second grade is not caution. It spends the years the support works best.

Key Takeaways:

Strong scores rule nothing out: The 2025 dyslexia definition dropped discrepancy thinking for lacking predictive validity.

Early beats waiting: The definition itself says early language and literacy support works best.

Paper moves schools: Written requests, written refusals, and outside evaluations restart stalled assessments.

What Gets a School Moving

Sabrina’s family got unstuck with an outside evaluation. If you are in the United States, the mechanics behind that are worth knowing. A private report handed to a district must be considered, though not automatically agreed with. In her son’s case it restarted everything. The school that had declined to assess him agreed to run its own full assessment. You do not need to start there, though. A parent has the right to ask the school directly for an evaluation, at no cost to the family. The strongest first move is to put that request in writing, with a date on it. A district is allowed to say no, but only in writing, with reasons. A verbal “let’s give it more time” is not a lawful refusal. A wait-and-see program is not a lawful reason to delay either. The federal Office of Special Education Programs said so in 2011.

At the table itself, remember the arithmetic Sabrina describes: five, six, seven educators across from one or two parents. You are allowed to change that arithmetic. Bring an advocate who knows the process. Let them carry the law while you carry the story of your child. If you are still at the noticing stage, write down what you see, with dates and examples. The common signs of dyslexia give you a checklist to write against. Parent observations are evidence a school evaluation is required to weigh, not background color.

And at home, one metric change does quiet work. When a reading challenge asks for 200 pages, make it 200 hours instead. Hours reward showing up, so a slower reader competes on the same terms as everyone else. The challenge stops teaching shame. Sabrina’s closing advice ties all of it together. Our words build a child’s self-talk, so stay positive, “because they know they’re struggling. They do. They know it.”

Author Quote "

Waiting for second grade is not caution. It spends the years the support works best.

You want your child to keep their confidence, their curiosity, and their belief that effort pays off. What stands in the way is rarely one teacher. It is a system that greets a struggling reader with “too high,” “too early,” and “give it time,” then hands the cost of the waiting to your family. You are not a spectator in that system, and you were never meant to be. Nobody will ever advocate for your child as hard as you will. That is true of every system, everywhere, always. It is exactly why your involvement isn’t optional.

While the school process runs its slow clock, the reading work itself does not have to wait. The 5-Minute Reading Fix gives you a short daily routine that builds decoding and spelling directly. Each word appears letter by letter, and the picture stays hidden until the word is complete, so your child reads instead of guessing.

A reading struggle rarely travels alone, either. Many children who find reading hard also wrestle with focus, with attention, or with getting their thoughts onto paper. Sabrina’s son carries a reading struggle and a focus struggle together. All Access puts the full set of programs under one roof, so you build up the whole child instead of chasing one label at a time.

Why we use AI, plainly: it writes from a knowledge base our team maintains and audits—we work through it line by line and pull anything the evidence stops supporting. Doing that by hand for every family would take weeks each. This way the roadmap you get on Tuesday reflects what we corrected on Monday, and a human still reads it before you do.

Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.

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A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too—that's the only route to those supports.