We’ve written before about why early dyslexia screening builds lifelong learners. A lot has changed since then. There’s a new expert definition of dyslexia, new data on who gets diagnosed, and a clear policy focus on identifying needs early. This article brings the evidence up to date.

What the government says

The Department for Education’s position is that “early identification of need and support is critical to improving outcomes” (written answer 60291, June 2025).

That principle now runs through current policy. “Early” is the first principle of the proposed SEND reforms. The new Inclusive Mainstream Fund is meant to help schools identify and meet needs early, without waiting for a diagnosis. And Ofsted’s renewed framework expects leaders to identify pupils’ needs quickly and accurately.

In February 2026, the DfE-commissioned Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group, chaired by Professor Karen Guldberg, published its report. Its first priority is the timely identification of children’s strengths and needs, and it recommends giving educators “evidence-based valid and accurate holistic educational assessment”.

It’s worth being clear about what the DfE hasn’t done, too: it has not backed mandatory dyslexia screening.

A new definition of dyslexia

In February 2025, researchers published a new definition of dyslexia agreed through a Delphi study (Carroll and colleagues, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry). In this kind of study, experts vote over several rounds until they reach consensus. Here, 58 experts reached at least 80% agreement on 42 statements.

The definition describes dyslexia as “a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling”. Several points matter for schools:

• Dyslexia sits on a continuum. It isn’t a yes-or-no category. The Rose Review made a similar point back in 2009.

• It often co-occurs with other needs, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD and developmental coordination disorder.

• There is no IQ-discrepancy requirement. A child doesn’t need a gap between their reasoning ability and their reading to be dyslexic.

Dyslexia is common: around 1 in 10 people are thought to be affected, although that figure is approximate. In a class of 30, that could mean around three pupils.

Who gets diagnosed

This is where screening every pupil matters most. In October 2025, the British Dyslexia Association published “Set up for somebody else”, a report on young people with dyslexia in the education system. It found that 90% of children in households earning over £100,000 have a formal diagnosis, compared with 43% of those in households earning under £30,000.

A gap that size suggests that whether a child’s dyslexia is recognised can depend on their family’s income. When identification depends on who knows to ask, and who can pay, it isn’t fair.

Why screening helps

Screening isn’t a diagnosis, and it doesn’t replace specialist assessment. What it does is give pupils the same, consistent check, whatever their background. Some schools screen whole classes at key points, such as Year 3 or the move to secondary; others screen individual pupils when a concern comes up. Either way, it helps in a few ways:

• It finds the quiet ones. Pupils who mask their difficulties, or who don’t fit the classroom picture of dyslexia, are less likely to slip through.

• It works with the continuum. Rather than a yes or no, a good screener shows a level of risk and where in the profile difficulty is concentrated.

• It helps decide who needs a closer look. Specialist time is precious, and screening helps schools prioritise it.

• It starts support sooner. Classroom strategies don’t need to wait for a formal diagnosis.

Screening is also honest about its limits. Some pupils with dyslexia will be missed and some without it will be flagged, which is true of any screening tool. Teachers should stay alert to classroom difficulties whatever a screening result says.

How this shapes our own work

Talamo’s Cognitive & Dyslexia assessment is aligned with the Delphi definition. It covers baseline reasoning, the key indicators associated with dyslexia (phonological awareness, working memory and processing speed) and the impact on reading and spelling. It reports a level of risk rather than a yes or no, and describes results as “consistent with” dyslexia, never as a diagnosis.

The assessment is standardised for ages 7 to 16, on 4,580 pupils in 85 UK schools. The BDA considers Talamo a suitable screening tool for children aged 10⁠–⁠16.

See a sample Cognitive & Dyslexia report →

You can read more about how we build and test our assessments on our research page, or explore the Cognitive & Dyslexia assessment.

For parents: our dyslexia screener is also available for families to use at home, for £69. Start my child’s assessment