Can someone has dyslexia and ADHD at the same time? What's the difference?

Hi!

I used to work as an internship teacher in an English course.
When I taught there, I had a student who never be able to spell words. 3 weeks I taught there and he couldn't spell colours name (e.g.:brown, white, black, purple, etc) and numbers name (e.g:one, two, three) correctly. Sometimes he missed one letter of alphabet or reserved the letter.
It's hard for him to read as well. So I think he has a dyslexia. It was 2-3 months ago and my internship time is over.

But today, I went there again to see him and check whether there has been a change. And he has been able to spell the words now. Even though sometimes he still read b as d and wrote dda mistakenly with dad.
Furthermore, he really can't sit still and really hard to focus on work which I didn't see it too noticeable before. He still likes to talk till now.
Does it mean that actually he has ADHD? Or he has both dyslexia and ADHD?

I read that dyslexic people can't focus on the task well too so it's confusing to me.

Dyslexia is when a person has trouble spelling, writing things ect, because their brain jumbles things for them. When we might see a straight forward word like "BLUE" they might see it as "BUEL" because their brain does not work out the right sequence of the letters. They also have trouble with numbers in this way. For example, you could also tell the student to write down 3212 and they would write it down perhaps in a different sequence. People also usually mix up the letters "b" and "d" therefore making them incorrectly spell words. Its not that these people arnt smart, they are usually intelligent and gifted people. Many individuals with dyslexic symptoms involving reading, writing, and spelling also exhibit symptoms in other domains such as poor short-term memory skills, poor personal organizational skills, problems processing spoken language, left-right confusion, difficulties with numeracy or arithmetic, and issues with balance and co-ordination. Therefore the student you are refering to, may only have had dyslexia due to his poor concentration skills.
People with ADHD exhibit may exhibit these symptoms:
*Excessive talking
*Squirming excessivly
*Has trouble playing or working quietly
*Easily distracted
*Easiliy loses needed objects
*Unorganised
*Sometimes fails to follow instructions and has trouble finishing assigned work

Often ADHD is hard to diagnose unless it is very prodiminant. Many children diagnosed with ADD or ADHD have been misdiagnosed in previous years. It sounds as though the student had dyslexia and can you blame them for not being able to concentrate? Their brain is jumbling things for them, its very difficult. The student is probably improving his mental skills which is why he may be spelling better now. Their is no cure for dyslexia though. It sounds like you were very patient with him which is great, because sometimes thats all these students need =]

dislexia and adhd aren't the same thing dislexia the person is more confused than not focused and the letters jumble up in their head. ADHD the person can't focus on one thing at all

My psychology professor told me that some people who have ADHD have a family history of dyslexia...as well as a genetic predisposition. So I would say yes. Especially when both problems have to do with dis-organization in specific brain regions.

Some kids who have dyslexia (mixing up the order of letters and numbers) become hyperactivity out of the sheer frustration of not being able to accomplish a task.
However, Dyslexia (where the brain tricks the person into not being able to distinguish letters or numbers in order) is a distinct and different disorder then ADHD.

Someone may have worked with the child intensely to help with his dyslexia. ADHS can respond to medication and behavior modification.
Dyslexia involves repetition

add often goes along with learning disorders....

Dyslexia and ADHD both have genetic causes, and guess what, they are right next to each other on chromosome six.
The best source of information on dyslexia is a book by Sally Shaywitz called Overcoming Dyslexia. It is written in normal English, not teacher jargon. Buy it and read it, one student in twenty is dyslexic, and you are their best hope for any literacy instruction!