How are dyslexia and ADHD connected?

Sandra K. Loo, PhD Pediatric Neuropsychologist, explains the links between ADD and Dyslexia in children and shares the importance of assessing and treating both of them.
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How are dyslexia and ADHD connected?

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ADHD and dyslexia commonly co-occur, approximately 25% of children with ADHD have reading problems, and the converse is true; approximately 25% of children with reading problems also have ADHD. Children that have both may have increased difficulty in learning to read, increased difficulties with verbal working memory, and increased difficulties with executive functions. Very often children who have both ADHD and reading problems have what we call a double deficit, so in addition to having problems with phonological awareness, they also may have very inaccurate reading, because they may see the first letter and then not pay attention to the rest of the word. If a child has reading problems, it's important to assess whether the child also has ADHD, or significant attention problems, and if so, to treat both the attention problems, as well as the reading problems

Sandra K. Loo, PhD Pediatric Neuropsychologist, explains the links between ADD and Dyslexia in children and shares the importance of assessing and treating both of them.

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Sandra K. Loo, PhD

Pediatric Neuropsychologist

Dr. Sandra Loo is Director of Pediatric Neuropsychology and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Loo is a child clinical psychologist and works clinically in the Medical Psychology Assessment Center and UCLA ADHD Clinics. She specializes in neuropsychological assessment of childhood psychiatric disorders such as ADHD and Dyslexia. Before coming to UCLA, Dr. Loo was director of two outpatient clinics specializing in the diagnostic and neurocognitive assessment of attention and learning disorders at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the University of Massachusetts where she worked with Dr. Russell Barkley.

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Transcription: 
ADHD and dyslexia commonly co-occur, approximately 25% of children with ADHD have reading problems, and the converse is true; approximately 25% of children with reading problems also have ADHD. Children that have both may have increased difficulty in learning to read, increased difficulties with verbal working memory, and increased difficulties with executive functions. Very often children who have both ADHD and reading problems have what we call a double deficit, so in addition to having problems with phonological awareness, they also may have very inaccurate reading, because they may see the first letter and then not pay attention to the rest of the word. If a child has reading problems, it's important to assess whether the child also has ADHD, or significant attention problems, and if so, to treat both the attention problems, as well as the reading problems