The Characteristics Of Dyslexia

Today, Dyslexia refers to a neurobiological learning disability negatively affecting fluent word recognition, spelling and decoding during reading. However, dyslexia has not always been used and interpreted the way we use it today. Before provision of a universally accepted definition of dyslexia in the Code of Practice by the Department of Education and Employment (DDE) in 1994, some would use dyslexia to refer to either developmental dyslexia or learning difficulty (Snowling, 2001; Vellutino, 1979). The DDE definition considered dyslexia as a specific learning disorder disregarding the specific characteristics of dyslexia making it different from other forms or types of learning difficulties (Seymour, 1986). Even today the debate is still

Even though his main interest revolved around adult reading difficulties, his work was noteworthy in that he called for study of reading difficulties as a separate type of learning difficulty (Hallahan & Mock 2003). He called reading difficulties word blindness, a term which spread fast among educators and medical practitioners. Use of the word blindness implies a medical deficiency in people with reading difficulties and this term was used in medical journals as a type of neurological affliction (Critchley, 1975). In 1887, Rudolf Berlin used the term dyslexia for the first time in his paper; however, this term was not widely accepted and adopted by researchers until the 1980s (Berlin, 1887; Reeves,

During that time, sources and mechanism of reading difficulties was beginning to be viewed and studied from an educational point of view (Lyon, 1995; Vellutino, 1979). However, assessment of children with reading difficulties continued to be done using intelligence measures developed by psychologists until 1970s when assessment of reading difficulties started to be conducted and interpreted from educational perspective in response to the educational needs of children (Mather & Wendling,