A substantial genetic contribution in the etiology of developmental dyslexia (DD) has been well documented with independent groups reporting a susceptibility locus on chromosome 15q. After the identification of the DYX1C1 gene as a potential candidate for DD, several independent association studies reported controversial results. We performed a family‐based association study to determine whether the DYX1C1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been associated with DD before, that is SNPs ‘−3GA’ and ‘1249GT’, influence a broader phenotypic definition of DD. A significant linkage disequilibrium was observed with ‘Single Letter Backward Span’ (SLBS) in both single‐marker and haplotype analyses. These results provide further support to the association between DD and DYX1C1 and it suggests that the linkage disequilibrium with DYX1C1 is more saliently explained in Italian dyslexics by short‐term memory, as measured by ‘SLBS’, than by the categorical diagnosis of DD or other related phenotypes.