•RD children face significant risk for poor cognitive and socio-emotional outcome.•Such children can display remarkable resilience in these domains.•Cognitive resilience involves factors directly and indirectly related to reading.•Socio-emotional resilience relies heavily on interpersonal support.•Resilience in RD can lead to good functional outcome. In recent times, research on resilience in children facing adversities has proliferated. In this review, the authors characterize resilience in children with reading disorders (RD). To organize our discussion and categorize the specific outcomes such children demonstrate, we adopt the terms cognitive resilience and socio-emotional resilience. By paralleling other resilience research, we seek to uncover protective factors in the hopes that they can be targeted in education and interventions to improve cognitive functioning, socio-emotional wellbeing, and academic success of children with RD. We conclude by considering current limitations and addressing the need for future resilience research in this specific population of children.