rom each of the two camps, showing how they stand against over 100 years of dyslexia research, as well as current scientific understanding. Specifically, it addresses four from the first camp:
- That dyslexia does not exist at all
- That people with dyslexia and general poor readers are the same
- That all poor readers benefit from phonics-based interventions, so the cause of their difficulties must be the same
- That universal scientific consensus has yet to be achieved, so dyslexia should be abandoned
and four from the second camp:
- That dyslexia diverts resources away from others who need help
- That ‘dyslexia’ is a term used for political reasons, rather than scientific reasons
- That dyslexia was invented by ‘worried mothers’ to boost their children’s confidence
- That the terms ‘dyslexia’, ‘dyspraxia’ and ‘ADHD’ are interchangeable
Arguments against dyslexia the reality
1. Dyslexia does not exist at all
In the 1870s, the kinds of difficulties we now call dyslexia were first identified in Germany1. By the 1880s, the term ‘dyslexia’ was coined, meaning ‘difficulty with reading’2. Later, science around the condition developed elsewhere in Europe, in Britain, and in the United States. By the 1960s, the presence of a specific learning difficulty associated with reading and spelling was clear, and organisations like the Word Blind Centre for Dyslexic Children in London were created to explore it further3. Studies of the condition found that the presence of such difficulties was unrelated to educational level, but often clustered in families. That there is a genetic basis for dyslexia, therefore, has been suspected for over 100 years4. Beyond this, the work of organisations like the Word Blind Centre helped to curtail the practice of labelling children with dyslexic difficulties as either stupid or disruptive – common accusations of the time5. [see here for an overview of the history of dyslexia]
Today, we know much more about dyslexia. It is widely-accepted that dyslexia is a specific learning disorder. We know it has an early onset in childhood and that it is persistent through the life span (although some affected individuals can compensate well and get by, sometimes by avoiding jobs that require significant reading and writing). Building on the knowledge that dyslexia runs in families, twin studies have revealed that it has a genetic basis – identical twins are more similar in terms of their reading and reading disability than non-identical twins. Molecular geneticists have identified some of the many genes associated with dyslexia, but how these interact to cause differences in brain structure and function is not yet understood. Despite this, considerable progress has been made in our understanding of the precursors of dyslexia by studying children who are at family risk of the condition. The findings of such studies reveal that problems in coding the speech sounds of language (phonological skills) are evident from early in the preschool years, long before children are taught to read.
2. People with dyslexia and general poor readers are the same
Until the 1970s, the ‘discrepancy model’ was commonly used as a guiding principle for the diagnosis of dyslexia. Within this framework, dyslexia was identified when there was a significant difference between general intelligence (as measured by IQ) and reading ability6. The discrepancy model differentiated between those readers whose difficulties might be explained by poor education or general low ability – general poor readers – and those whose difficulties could not explained by such factors. Later, as the science of reading developed, this model was retired, better acknowledging that dyslexia existed across the intellectual spectrum7. However, dyslexia’s critics continue to highlight the discrepancy model’s demise as an example of one area where dyslexia science was incorrect, and to suggest that, because it is no longer in use, there is no way to differentiate between those with dyslexia and general poor readers. This is untrue.
While a discrepancy between intelligence a