A pupil who finds reading hard isn’t only dealing with the reading. They’re also dealing with what it feels like to struggle in front of classmates, day after day, often without knowing why. For many young people with dyslexia, that emotional load is as heavy as the literacy difficulty itself.

This guide looks at why the two so often go together, what young people and researchers say about it, the signs to look out for in school, and what helps.

Why the effort adds up

Pupils with dyslexia often spend far more effort than their classmates on things that look simple from the outside: reading the instructions, copying from the board, spelling the words they want to use. That effort is tiring, and it is easy to miss. A pupil can work hard all lesson and still finish with less on the page than everyone else.

When that happens again and again, and nobody has explained why, many children draw their own conclusion: that they aren’t clever. Worry about being asked to read aloud, getting things wrong or being found out can then become part of every lesson.

What young people and researchers say

In October 2025 the British Dyslexia Association published a report on young people with dyslexia in the education system, “Set up for somebody else”. Among its findings:

• seven in ten said dyslexia had made them feel bad about themselves

• nearly eight in ten believed people assumed they were not clever because of their dyslexia

• six in ten said they hide their dyslexia

• six in ten reported being teased or bullied because of it

Research points the same way. A study that followed more than 2,000 primary-age pupils over time found that children with dyslexia reported more symptoms of stress and depression than their peers, and the authors concluded that support should address children’s emotional wellbeing as well as their reading.

Signs to look out for in school

Emotional strain doesn’t always look like worry. It might show up as:

• avoiding reading aloud, or volunteering for everything except reading and writing

• rushing written work to get it over with, or not starting at all

• rewriting the same sentence again and again to avoid mistakes

• frequent requests to leave the room, or stomach aches before particular lessons

• “messing about” at exactly the moments when reading or writing is required

• a sudden drop in confidence as the reading demands of a year group increase

Anxiety isn’t always about dyslexia

Children feel anxious for all kinds of reasons: friendships, family life, health, or temperament. Not every anxious pupil has a literacy difficulty, and not every pupil with dyslexia is anxious. The question worth asking is when the worry appears. If it clusters around reading, writing and spelling, that pattern deserves a closer look. If it’s broader, a different kind of support is likely to help more, and the school’s usual wellbeing and safeguarding routes come first.

What helps

Small, consistent changes can take a lot of pressure off:

• Explain, don’t just accommodate. Knowing that their brain finds some things harder, and other things easier, can be a real relief for a pupil who has decided they’re “stupid”.

• Remove the public moments. Avoid asking pupils to read aloud without warning. Let them prepare, read in a small group or pass.

• Allow thinking time. Pause after harder questions and keep them visible while the pupil thinks.

• Mark the essential work first. Keep the challenge, but cut repeated practice of the same skill so the load is manageable.

• Notice strengths out loud. Many pupils with literacy difficulties have real strengths elsewhere, such as visual reasoning or verbal ideas. Planning tasks that use them builds confidence.

• Work with families. Parents often see the end-of-day exhaustion that school doesn’t. A shared picture helps everyone respond in the same way.

Where screening fits

Screening can’t remove the emotional load on its own, but it can help explain it. A profile that shows where a pupil’s difficulties lie, and where their strengths are, gives staff and families something concrete to work from, and gives the pupil a better explanation than “I’m just bad at this”.

Talamo’s Cognitive & Dyslexia assessment reports a pupil’s strengths and challenges across nine areas, a dyslexia risk level and a Level of Need, with practical support suggestions for class and home. It is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. See what a report looks like.