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Dyslexia is a difficulty in learning to decode (read aloud) and to spell. DSM5 classifies dyslexia as one form of neurodevelopmental disorder. Neurodevelopmental disorders are heritable, life-long conditions with early onset. For many years, research on dyslexia proceeded on the basis that it was a specific learning difficulty - specific meaning that the difficulty could not be explained in terms of obvious causes such as sensory problems or general learning difficulties (low IQ). However, the failure to find qualitative differences in reading, and phonological skills, between children with dyslexia and children with more general learning problems led this kind of 'discrepancy' definition to fall from favour. The Rose Review stated that dyslexia can occur across the IQ range and that poor decoding skills require the same kinds of intervention irrespective of IQ. In this paper, we argue that loosening the criteria for dyslexia has influenced common understanding of the condition and led to diagnostic confusion. In the longer term, the use of the term may need to change. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

In 1896 the British physician William Pringle Morgan published an account of “Percy,” a “bright and intelligent boy, quick at games, and in no way inferior to others of his age.” Yet, in spite of his intelligence, Percy had great difficulty learning to read. Percy was one of the first children to be described as having word-blindness, better known today as dyslexia. In this first comprehensive history of dyslexia Philip Kirby and Margaret Snowling chart a journey that begins with Victorian medicine and continues to dyslexia’s current status as the most globally recognized specific learning difficulty. In an engaging narrative style, Kirby and Snowling tell the story of dyslexia, examining its origins and revealing the many scientists, teachers, and campaigners who put it on the map. Through this history they explain current debates over the diagnosis of dyslexia and its impact on learning. For those who have lived experience of dyslexia, professionals who have supported them, and scholars of social history, education, psychology, and childhood studies, Dyslexia reflects on the place of literacy in society – whom it has benefited, and whom it has left behind

Provides an overview of state-of-the-art research on the science of reading, revised and updated throughout The Science of Reading presents the most recent advances in the study of reading and related skills. Bringing together contributions from a multidisciplinary team of experts, this comprehensive volume reviews theoretical approaches, stage models of reading, cross-linguistic studies of reading, reading instruction, the neurobiology of reading, and more. Divided into six parts, the book explores word recognition processes in skilled reading, learning to read and spell, reading comprehension and its development, reading and writing in different languages, developmental and acquired reading disorders, and the social, biological, and environmental factors of literacy. The second edition of The Science of Reading is extensively revised to reflect contemporary theoretical insights and methodological advances. Two entirely new chapters on co-occurrence and complexity are accompanied by reviews of recent findings and discussion of future trends and research directions. Updated chapters cover the development of reading and language in preschools, the social correlates of reading, experimental research on sentence processing, learning to read in alphabetic orthographies, comorbidities that occur frequently with dyslexia, and other central topics. * Demonstrates how different knowledge sources underpin reading processes using a wide range of methodologies * Presents critical appraisals of theoretical and computational models of word recognition and evidence-based research on reading intervention * Reviews evidence on skilled visual word recognition, the role of phonology, methods for identifying dyslexia, and the molecular genetics of reading and language * Highlights the importance of language as a foundation for literacy and as a risk factor for developmental dyslexia and other reading disorders * Discusses learning to read in different types of writing systems, with a language impairment, and in variations of the home literacy environment * Describes the role of contemporary analytical tools such as dominance analysis and quantile regression in modelling the development of reading and comprehension Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Handbooks of Developmental Psychology series, the second edition of The Science of Reading: A Handbook remains an invaluable resource for advanced students, researchers, and specialist educators looking for an up-to-date overview of the field.

The Science of Reading: A Handbook brings together state-of-the-art reviews of reading research from leading names in the field, to create a highly authoritative, multidisciplinary overview of contemporary knowledge about reading and related skills. Provides comprehensive coverage of the subject, including theoretical approaches, reading processes, stage models of reading, cross-linguistic studies of reading, reading difficulties, the biology of reading, and reading instruction Divided into seven sections:Word Recognition Processes in Reading; Learning to Read and Spell; Reading Comprehension; Reading in Different Languages; Disorders of Reading and Spelling; Biological Bases of Reading; Teaching Reading Edited by well-respected senior figures in the field.

We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter–sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).

The development of reading skills is underpinned by oral language abilities: Phonological skills appear to have a causal influence on the development of early word-level literacy skills, and reading-comprehension ability depends, in addition to word-level literacy skills, on broader (semantic and syntactic) language skills. Here, we report a longitudinal study of children at familial risk of dyslexia, children with preschool language difficulties, and typically developing control children. Preschool measures of oral language predicted phoneme awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge just before school entry, which in turn predicted word-level literacy skills shortly after school entry. Reading comprehension at 8½ years was predicted by word-level literacy skills at 5½ years and by language skills at 3½ years. These patterns of predictive relationships were similar in both typically developing children and those at risk of literacy difficulties. Our findings underline the importance of oral language skills for the development of both word-level literacy and reading comprehension.

We followed children at family risk of dyslexia and children with preschool language difficulties from age 3½, comparing them with controls (N = 234). At age 8, children were classified as having dyslexia or Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and compared at earlier time points with controls. Children with dyslexia have specific difficulties with phonology and emergent reading skills in the preschool period, whereas children with DLD, with or without dyslexia, show a wider range of impairments including significant problems with executive and motor tasks. For children with both dyslexia and DLD, difficulties with phonology are generally more severe than those observed in children with dyslexia or DLD alone. Findings confirm that poor phonology is the major cognitive risk factor for dyslexia.

A significant proportion of children (up to 7% in the UK) present with pronounced language difficulties that cannot be explained by obvious causes like other neurological and medical conditions. A substantial genetic component is predicted to underlie such language problems. Copy number variants (CNVs) have been implicated in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, such as autism and schizophrenia, but it is not fully established to what extent they might contribute to language disorders. We conducted a CNV screen in a longitudinal cohort of young children with language-related difficulties (n = 85), focusing on single events at candidate loci. We detected a de novo deletion on chromosome 15q13.1-13.3. The adjacent 15q11-13.1 locus is disrupted in Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes, while disruptions across the breakpoints (BP1-BP6) have previously been implicated in different neurodevelopmental phenotypes including autism, intellectual disability (ID), seizures and developmental delay (DD). This is the first report of a deletion at BP3-BP5 being linked to a deficit confined to language impairment, in the absence of ID, expanding the range of phenotypes that implicate the chromosome 15q13 locus.

Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet there is little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments in children. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicine and the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them. Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possible to achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying children who might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representing ten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatrics and child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46 statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing on this topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a seven-point scale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the first two authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus. The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation (round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percent for 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their response with written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resulting consensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and a concluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base.

The goal of reading is to extract meaning from text, and this depends upon both decoding and language-comprehension skills. Recently there has been growing interest in children who can read accurately but have poor comprehension. Reading-comprehension impairment is relatively common, although it often goes unrecognized in the classroom. Children with reading-comprehension impairment have a range of oral-language weaknesses, which impede their comprehension of both written and spoken language. Recent studies indicate that these underlying oral-language difficulties can be ameliorated by school-based interventions, which can, in turn, improve both reading- and listening-comprehension skills. Early interventions to reduce such language-learning weaknesses potentially have very important educational, social, and economic implications.