This small-scale study compared 10 to 13-year-old dyslexic children's use of text message abbreviations with that of reading age- and chronological age-matched controls. There were no significant differences in the proportion of textisms used between the dyslexic children and the two control groups, although a preference for non-phonetic text abbreviations was observed in the dyslexic group. Unlike the controls, there was little evidence of an association between phonological awareness and textism use in children with dyslexia. These results are discussed in relation to strategy use by dyslexic children when decoding text. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)