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Developmental Perspectives in Written Language and Literacy: In honor of Ludo Verhoeven
Edited by Eliane Segers and Paul van den Broek
[Not in series 206] 2017

Issues in diagnosing dyslexia

| | University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Since the first descriptions of children with congenital word blindness or dyslexia, the proper criteria for diagnosis of dyslexia have been debated. Issues in this debate concern, among others, the role of underlying causes of reading and spelling and the use of a discrepancy between reading ability and intelligence. This chapter will consider recent evidence from family risk studies of dyslexia that speaks to these issues. We conclude that current evidence on the etiology of developmental disorders neither supports a specific underlying cognitive profile (e.g., phonological deficits), nor the requirement of a discrepancy with intelligence. Deciding factors in diagnosis should be lack of learning opportunity, other exclusion factors, and naturally the degree of reading and spelling difficulties.

Keywords: dyslexia, diagnosis, family risk, multiple deficit model, RTI
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Including deficits in the diagnosis
    • 2.1The nature of causes
    • 2.2Task impurity
    • 2.3Unknown causes
  • 3.Intelligence achievement discrepancy
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 21 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.206.21dej
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