The validity of the suggestion that dyslexic children make more letter reversal errors than other children was tested. Horizontal letter reversals of 8- to 11-year-old dyslexic children, nondyslexic speech- or language-impaired (SLI) children, and nonimpaired children in the context of individual letters, words, words spelled out letter-by-letter, and drawings incorporating letterlike shapes were examined. The results indicated that dyslexic children made significantly more errors than nondyslexic SLI and nonimpaired children in word production tasks but not word recognition tasks. When the letters were presented individually, the three groups did not differ in the number of reversals made. Results of the task that involved copying a drawing indicated that dyslexic children rarely reversed letters when they were embedded in drawings. The drawings of a person made by dyslexic children were no different in terms of structure and detail from drawings made by nonimpaired age-matched children. Letter reversals presented the greatest problem for dyslexic children in tasks in which the letters served a symbolic, specifically linguistic, function. (PAM)