Ebook: Dyslexia: Developing the Debate

Nicolson and Elliott debate the status and utility of the dyslexia label. Nicolson explains dyslexia both as a specific learning difficulty and as a reading disability. His account of the former involves neural circuitry. It is a difficulty in procedural, habit-forming learning, leading to developmental delay in sensorimotor, language and internalization skills necessary for ‘reading readiness’. Dyslexia as a reading disability is triggered by premature formal teaching. Ensuing repeated, inescapable failures lead to confusion, then to reading anxiety disabling declarative learning capabilities required for school instruction. RD is an acquired learning disability arising from a mismatch between teaching method and SpLD. Elliott argues that the term ‘dyslexia’ should be abandoned. He contends that the term is not associated with robust support forinterventions that would be effective with poor readers credited with the label, yet ineffective with other poor readers.While Elliot sees dyslexia as having a neurobiological origin, he seeks to show that there is currently no meaningful diagnosis based on genetics and neuroscience. He believes that special treatment for those with a dyslexic label is unfair.Nicolson and Elliott respond to each other’s opening chapter. This book is part of the ‘Key Debates in Educational Policy’ series that treats important education debates from a philosophical perspective. In the Afterword,Davis supplies the philosophical element by exploring some ethical and conceptual questions stimulated by the Nicolson-Elliott exchanges.The issues of justice for learners needing support, and the ‘reality’ of dyslexia are to the fore in Davis’s commentary.