The Need for a Valid Theory of Dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is a biologically based learning difficulty, usually identified early in children’s primary education when young children struggle to acquire proficiency in beginning reading skills. Prevalence estimates vary, ranging from 5% to as high as 20% [1]. After more than a century of implementing a broad range of remedial strategies, this disability, which affects individuals irrespective of their level of intelligence, motivation to learn and adequate educational and social circumstances, remains relatively intransigent to educational approaches. Familial studies indicate an etiological origin in a complex and largely unknown interplay of genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors [2]. As a result, parents, clinicians and educators have no clear theoretical understanding of the disorder. The emotional trauma on individuals and the costs to society are considerable.

[1]  S. T. Orton Reading, Writing and Speech Problems in Children , 1938, Nature.

[2]  K. Pugh,et al.  The relationship between phonological and auditory processing and brain organization in beginning readers , 2013, Brain and Language.

[3]  O. Churches,et al.  Variability in lateralised blood flow response to language is associated with language development in children aged 1–5 years , 2015, Brain and Language.

[4]  B. Wandell,et al.  Development of white matter and reading skills , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[5]  M. Seghier,et al.  An anatomical signature for literacy , 2009, Nature.

[6]  P. Mahadevan,et al.  An overview , 2007, Journal of Biosciences.

[7]  J. Wouters,et al.  Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews a Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Studies in Reading and Dyslexia , 2022 .

[8]  J. Kershner,et al.  Forced-Attention Dichotic Listening With University Students With Dyslexia , 2016, Journal of learning disabilities.

[9]  S. Scott,et al.  Intact But Less Accessible Phonetic Representations in Adults with Dyslexia , 2013, Science.

[10]  J. Wouters,et al.  A tractography study in dyslexia: neuroanatomic correlates of orthographic, phonological and speech processing. , 2012, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[11]  B. Franke,et al.  Molecular genetics of dyslexia: an overview. , 2013, Dyslexia.

[12]  Stanislas Dehaene,et al.  Learning to read improves the structure of the arcuate fasciculus. , 2014, Cerebral cortex.

[13]  M. DorothyV.,et al.  Bishop or Consequence ? Cerebral Asymmetry and Language Development : Cause , Correlate , 2014 .

[14]  R. Khesin,et al.  Molecular Genetics , 1968, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[15]  W. F. Schneider Reading, Writing and Speech Problems in Children , 1938 .