Dyslexia

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Abstract
... The exclusive use of the discrepancy measure by Shaywitz et al. (Jan. 16 issue)1 serves both to include ordinary intelligent children who read poorly for a variety of nonbiologic reasons (e.g., social opportunity, motivation, and the like) and to exclude children who, albeit truly dyslexic in the modern sense of the word, have been able to improve their reading ability by the time the research begins. It is at best a screening measure and cannot be used to establish a diagnosis of dyslexia. Modern approaches to thinking about dyslexia require that specific deficits in language,2 , 3 the visual domain,4 or both be present to explain the reading disorder. At present, it is even possible to document specific physiologic,5 anatomical,6 and genetic7 characteristics in many people with dyslexia that place them well outside the normal curve.8 Short of this, the sample will necessarily contain many normal children for whom there are other explanations than dyslexia for the discrepancy between reading ability and intelligence.