Most definitions of reading disability and/or dyslexia involve assessment of a discrepancy between reading ability and measured intelligence. In this article, it is argued that the use of intelligence as an aptitude benchmark in defining dyslexia conceals unsupported assumptions about educational potential and makes it difficult to differentiate the cognitive characteristics of dyslexic children from those of other poor readers. The use of a more educationally relevant aptitude measure such as listening comprehension is suggested. However, it is argued that all discrepancy definitions predicated on mismatches between aptitude and achievement are threatened by findings that acquisition of literacy fosters the cognitive skills assessed on aptitude measures. These findings undermine the logic of discrepancy measurement by weakening the distinction between aptitude and achievement.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AaronP. G. (1987). Developmental dyslexia: Is it different from other forms of reading disability?Annals of Dyslexia, 37, 109–125.
2.
AaronP. G. (1989a). Dyslexia and hyperlexia. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
3.
AaronP. G. (1989b). Qualitative and quantitative differences among dyslexic, normal, and nondyslexic poor readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1, 291–308.
4.
AmanM.SinghN. (1983). Specific reading disorders: Concepts of etiology reconsidered. In GadowK.BialerI. (Eds.), Advances in learning and behavioral disabilities (Vol. 2, pp. 1–47). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
5.
AnastasiA. (1988). Psychological testing (6th ed.). New York: Macmillan.
6.
ApplebeeA. N. (1971). Research in reading retardation: Two critical problems. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 12, 91–113.
7.
BaddeleyA. D.EllisN. C.MilesT. R.LewisV. J. (1982). Developmental and acquired dyslexia: A comparison. Cognition, 11, 185–199.
8.
BaddeleyA. D.LogieR. H.EllisN. C. (1988). Characteristics of developmental dyslexia. Cognition, 30, 198–227.
9.
BaddeleyA.LogieR.SmithI. NimmoBreretonN. (1985). Components of fluent reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 24, 119–131.
10.
BeechJ.HardingL. (1984). Phonemic processing and the poor reader from a developmental lag viewpoint. Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 357–366.
11.
BowersP.SteffyR.TateE. (1988). Comparison of the effects of IQ control methods on memory and naming speed predictors of reading disability. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 304–319.
12.
BradleyL.BryantP. E. (1978). Difficulties in auditory organization as a possible cause of reading backwardness. Nature, 271, 746–747.
13.
BradleyL.BryantP. E. (1985). Rhyme and reason in reading and spelling. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
14.
BruckM. (1988). The word recognition and spelling of dyslexic children. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 51–69.
15.
BruckM. (1990). Word-recognition skills of adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia. Developmental Psychology, 26, 439–454.
16.
BryantP. E.GoswamiU. (1986). Strengths and weaknesses of the reading level design: A comment on Backman, Mamen, and Ferguson. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 101–103.
17.
ByrneB. (1981). Deficient syntactic control in poor readers: Is a weak phonetic memory code responsible?Applied Psycholinguistics, 2, 201–212.
18.
CarlisleJ. F. (1989). The use of the sentence verification technique in diagnostic assessment of listening and reading comprehension. Learning Disabilities Research, 5, 33–44.
19.
CarrT. H. (1981). Building theories of reading ability: On the relation between individual differences in cognitive skills and reading comprehension. Cognition, 9, 73–114.
20.
CarrollJ. B. (1972). Defining language comprehension: Some speculations. In CarrollJ. B. T.FreedleR. (Eds.), Language, comprehension, and the acquisition of knowledge (pp. 1–29). Washington, DC: W. H. Winston & Sons.
21.
CarrollJ. B. (1977). Developmental parameters of reading comprehension. In GuthrieJ. T. (Ed.), Cognition, curriculum, and comprehension (pp. 1–15). Newark, DE: IRA.
22.
CarverR. P. (1981). Reading comprehension and reading theory. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
23.
CarverR. P. (1990). Intelligence and reading ability in grades 2–12. Intelligence, 14, 449–455.
24.
CeciS. J. (1986). Handbook of cognitive, social and neuropsychological aspects of learning disabilities (Vol. 1). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
25.
ChallJ. S. (1983). Stages of reading development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
26.
ColesG. S. (1978). The learning-disabilities test battery: Empirical and social issues. Harvard Educational Review, 48, 313–340.
27.
ColesG. S. (1987). The learning mystique. New York: Pantheon.
28.
CritchleyM. (1970). The dyslexic child. London: William Heinemann Medical Books.
29.
CronbachL. J. (1984). Essentials of psychological testing (4th ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
CunninghamA. E.StanovichK. E. (1991). Tracking the unique effects of print exposure in children: Associations with vocabulary, general knowledge, and spelling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 264–274.
32.
CunninghamA. E.StanovichK. E.WilsonM. R. (1990). Cognitive variation in adult students differing in reading ability. In CarrT.LevyB. A. (Eds.), Reading and development: Component skills approaches (pp. 129–159). New York: Academic Press.
33.
CurtisM. (1980). Development of components of reading skill. Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 656–669.
34.
DanemanM.TardiffT. (1987). Working memory and reading skill re-examined. In ColtheartM. (Ed.), Attention and performance (Vol. 12, pp. 491–508). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
35.
DettermanD. (1982). Does “g” exist?Intelligence, 6, 99–108.
36.
DoehringD. G. (1978). The tangled web of behavioral research on developmental dyslexia. In BentonA. L.PearlD. (Eds.), Dyslexia (pp. 123–135). New York: Oxford University Press.
37.
DurrellD. D. (1969). Listening comprehension versus reading comprehension. Journal of Reading, 12, 455–460.
38.
DurrellD. D.HayesM. (1969). Durrell listening-reading series. New York: Psychological Corporation.
39.
EisenbergL. (1978). Definitions of dyslexia: Their consequences for research and policy. In BentonA. L.PearlD. (Eds.), Dyslexia (pp. 29–42). New York: Oxford University Press.
40.
EisenbergL. (1979). Reading disorders: Strategies for recognition and management. Bulletin of the Orton Society, 29, 35–55.
41.
EllisN.LargeB. (1987). The development of reading: As you seek so shall you find. British Journal of Psychology, 78, 1–28.
42.
EvansM. A.CarrT. H. (1985). Cognitive abilities, conditions of learning, and the early development of reading skill. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 327–350.
43.
FletcherJ. M.EspyK.FrancisD.DavidsonK.RourkeB.ShaywitzS. (1989). Comparisons of cutoff and regression-based definitions of reading disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 334–338.
44.
FrankenbergerW.HarperJ. (1987). States' criteria and procedures for identifying learning disabled children: A comparison of 1981/82 and 1985/86 guidelines. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20, 118–121.
45.
FrederiksenJ. R. (1980). Component skills in reading: Measurement of individual differences through chronometric analysis. In SnowR.FedericoP.MontagueW. (Eds.), Aptitude, learning, and instruction (Vol. 1, pp. 105–138). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
46.
FredmanG.StevensonJ. (1988). Reading processes in specific reading retarded and reading backward 13-year-olds. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6, 97–108.
GoughP. B.TunmerW. E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6–10.
49.
GrayD. B.KavanaghJ. K. (1985). Biobehavioral measures of dyslexia. Parkton, MD: York Press.
50.
HammillD.LeighJ.McNuttG.LarsenS. (1981). A new definition of learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 4, 336–342.
51.
HarrisA. J.SipayE. R. (1985). How to increase reading ability (8th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
52.
HayesD. P. (1988). Speaking and writing: Distinct patterns of word choice. Journal of Memory and Language, 27, 572–585.
53.
HayesD. P.AhrensM. (1988). Vocabulary simplification for children: A special case of “motherese”?. Journal of Child Language, 15, 395–410.
54.
HesslerG. L. (1987). Educational issues surrounding severe discrepancy. Learning Disabilities Research, 3, 43–49.
55.
HolliganC.JohnstonR. S. (1988). The use of phonological information by good and poor readers in memory and reading tasks. Memory & Cognition, 16, 522–532.
56.
HoodJ.DubertL. A. (1983). Decoding as a component of reading comprehension among secondary students. Journal of Reading Behavior, 15, 51–61.
57.
HooverW. A.GoughP. B. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 127–160.
58.
HornW. F.O'DonnellJ. (1984). Early identification of learning disabilities: A comparison of two methods. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 1106–1118.
59.
HorowitzR.SamuelsS. J. (1985). Reading and listening to expository text. Journal of Reading Behavior, 17, 185–198.
60.
HulmeC. (1988). The implausibility of low-level visual deficits as a cause of children's reading difficulties. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 5, 369–374.
61.
HumphreysL. G. (1979). The construct of general intelligence. Intelligence, 3, 105–120.
62.
JacksonM. D.McClellandJ. L. (1979). Processing determinants of reading speed. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 151–181.
63.
JohnsonD. J. (1988). Review of research on specific reading, writing, and mathematics disorders. In KavanaghJ. F.TrussT. J. (Eds.), Learning disabilities: Proceedings of the national conference (pp. 79–163). Parkston, MD: York Press.
64.
JormA.ShareD.MacleanR.MatthewsR. (1986). Cognitive factors at school entry predictive of specific reading retardation and general reading backwardness: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27, 45–54.
65.
JuelC. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437–447.
66.
JustM.CarpenterP.A. (1987). The psychology of reading and language comprehension. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
67.
KamhiA.CattsH. (1989). Reading disabilities: A developmental language perspective. Boston: College-Hill Press.
68.
KavaleK. A. (1987). Theoretical issues surrounding severe discrepancy. Learning Disabilities Research, 3, 12–20.
69.
KavaleK. A.NyeC. (1981). Identification criteria for learning disabilities: A survey of the research literature. Learning Disability Quarterly, 4, 363–388.
70.
KavanaghJ. F.TrussT. J. (Eds.). (1988). Learning disabilities: Proceedings of the national conference. Parkston, MD: York Press.
71.
KochnowerJ.RichardsonE.DiBenedettoB. (1983). A comparison of the phonic decoding ability of normal and learning disabled children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 16, 348–351.
72.
LabudaM.DeFriesJ. C. (1989). Differential prognosis of reading-disabled children as a function of gender, socioeconomic status, IQ, and severity: A longitudinal study. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1, 25–36.
73.
LibermanI. Y.ShankweilerD. (1985). Phonology and the problems of learning to read and write. Remedial and Special Education, 6, 8–17.
74.
LindgrenS. D.DeRenziE.RichmanL. C. (1985). Cross-national comparisons of developmental dyslexia in Italy and the United States. Child Development, 56, 1404–1417.
75.
LovegroveW.SlaghuisW. (1989). How reliable are visual differences found in dyslexics?Irish Journal of Psychology, 10, 542–550.
76.
LundbergI.HoienT. (1989). Phonemic deficits: A core symptom of developmental dyslexia. Irish Journal of Psychology, 10, 579–592.
77.
LyonG. R. (1985). Educational validation studies of learning disability subtypes. In RourkeB. P. (Ed.), Neuropsychology of learning disabilities (pp. 228–253). New York: The Guilford Press.
78.
McGill-FranzenA. (1987). Failure to learn to read: Formulating a policy problem. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 475–490.
79.
McKinneyJ. D. (1987). Research on the identification of learning-disabled children: Perspectives on changes in educational policy. In VaughnS.BosC. (Eds.), Research in learning disabilities (pp. 215–233). Boston: College-Hill.
80.
McLeskeyJ. (1989). The influence of level of discrepancy on the identification of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 435–438.
81.
OlsonR.KlieglR.DavidsonB.FoltzG. (1985). Individual and developmental differences in reading disability. In WallerT. (Ed.), Reading research: Advances in theory and practice (Vol. 4, pp. 1–64). London: Academic Press.
82.
OlsonR.WiseB.ConnersF.RackJ. (1990). Organization, heritability, and remediation of component word recognition and language skills in disabled readers. In CarrT.LevyB. A. (Eds.), Reading and its development: Component skills approaches. New York: Academic Press.
83.
OlsonR.WiseB.ConnersF.RackJ.FulkerD. (1989). Specific deficits in component reading and language skills: Genetic and environmental influences. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 339–348.
84.
PalmerJ.MacLeodC. M.HuntE.DavidsonJ. E. (1985). Information processing correlates of reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 24, 59–88.
85.
PerfettiC. A. (1985). Reading ability. New York: Oxford University Press.
86.
PerfettiC. A. (1986). Continuities in reading acquisition, reading skill, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 11–21.
87.
PerfettiC. A.LesgoldA. M. (1977). Discourse comprehension and sources of individual differences. In JustM.CarpenterP. (Eds.), Cognitive processes in comprehension (pp. 141–183). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
88.
PressleyM.LevinJ. R. (1987). Elaborative learning strategies for the inefficient learner. In CeciS. J. (Ed.), Handbook of cognitive, social, and neuropsychological aspects of learning disabilities (Vol. 2, pp. 175–212). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
89.
RackJ. P.SnowlingM. J.OlsonR. K. (1990). The nonword reading deficit in developmental dyslexia: A review. Manuscript under review.
90.
RapalaM. M.BradyS. (1990). Reading ability and short-term memory: The role of phonological processing. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 1–25.
91.
RaynerK.PollatsekA. (1989). The psychology of reading. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
92.
ReedJ. C. (1970). The deficits of retarded readers — Fact or artifact?The Reading Teacher, 23, 347–357.
93.
ReynoldsC. R. (1985). Measuring the aptitude-achievement discrepancy in learning disability diagnosis. Remedial and Special Education, 6, 37–55.
94.
RoyerJ. M.KulhavyR.LeeS.PetersonS. (1986). The relationship between reading and listening comprehension. Educational and Psychological Research, 6, 299–314.
95.
RoyerJ. M.SinatraG. M.SchumerH. (1990). Patterns of individual differences in the development of listening and reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 15, 183–196.
96.
RutterM. (1978). Prevalence and types of dyslexia. In BentonA.PearlD. (Eds.), Dyslexia: An appraisal of current knowledge (pp. 5–28). New York: Oxford University Press.
97.
RutterM.YuleW. (1975). The concept of specific reading retardation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16, 181–197.
98.
SeidenbergM. S.BruckM.FornaroloG.BackmanJ. (1986). Who is dyslexic? Reply to Wolf. Applied Psycholinguistics, 7, 77–84.
99.
ShankweilerD.CrainS.BradyS.MacarusoP. (in press). Identifying the causes of reading disability. In GoughP.EhriL.TreimanR. (Eds.), Reading acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
100.
ShareD. L.McGeeR.McKenzieD.WilliamsS.SilvaP. A. (1987). Further evidence relating to the distinction between specific reading retardation and general reading backwardness. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 35–44.
101.
ShareD. L.McGeeR.SilvaP. (1989). IQ and reading progress: A test of the capacity notion of IQ. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 28, 97–100.
102.
ShareD. L.SilvaP. A. (1987). Language deficits and specific reading retardation: Cause or effect?British Journal of Disorders of Communication, 22, 219–226.
103.
ShepardL. (1980). An evaluation of the regression discrepancy method for identifying children with learning disabilities. Journal of Special Education, 14, 79–91.
104.
SiegelL. S. (1988). Evidence that IQ scores are irrelevant to the definition and analysis of reading disability. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 42, 201–215.
105.
SiegelL. S. (1989). IQ is irrelevant to the definition of learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 469–478.
106.
SiegelL. S.FauxD. (1989). Acquisition of certain grapheme-phoneme correspondences in normally achieving and disabled readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1, 37–52.
107.
SiegelL. S.HeavenR. K. (1986). Categorization of learning disabilities. In CeciS. J. (Ed.), Handbook of cognitive, social, and neuropsychological aspects of learning disabilities (Vol. 1, pp. 95–121). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
108.
SiegelL. S.RyanE. B. (1988). Development of grammatical-sensitivity, phonological, and short-term memory skills in normally achieving and learning disabled children. Developmental Psychology, 24, 28–37.
109.
SiegelL. S.RyanE. B. (1989). Subtypes of developmental dyslexia: The influence of definitional variables. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1, 257–287.
110.
SilvaP. A.McGeeR.WilliamsS. (1985). Some characteristics of 9-year-old boys with general reading backwardness or specific reading retardation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 26, 407–421.
111.
SnowlingM. (1980). The development of grapheme-phoneme correspondence in normal and dyslexic readers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 29, 294–305.
SolmanR. T.MayJ. G. (1990). Spatial localization discrepancies: A visual deficiency in poor readers. American Journal of Psychology, 103, 243–263.
115.
SpacheG. D. (1981). Diagnostic reading scales. Monterey, CA: CTB/McGraw-Hill.
116.
SpringC.FrenchL. (1990). Identifying children with specific reading disabilities from listening and reading discrepancy scores. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 23, 53–58.
117.
StanleyG.SmithG.PowysA. (1982). Selecting intelligence tests for studies of dyslexic children. Psychological Reports, 50, 787–792.
118.
StanovichK. E. (1985). Explaining the variance in reading ability in terms of psychological processes: What have we learned?Annals of Dyslexia, 35, 67–96.
119.
StanovichK. E. (1986a). Cognitive processes and the reading problems of learning disabled children: Evaluating the assumption of specificity. In TorgesenJ.WongB. (Eds.). Psychological and educational perspectives on learning disabilities (pp. 87–131). New York: Academic Press.
120.
StanovichK. E. (1986b). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360–407.
121.
StanovichK. E. (1988a). Explaining the differences between the dyslexic and the garden-variety poor reader: The phonological-core variable-difference model. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21, 590–612.
122.
StanovichK. E. (1988b). The right and wrong places to look for the cognitive locus of reading disability. Annals of Dyslexia, 38, 154–177.
123.
StanovichK. E.CunninghamA. E.FeemanD. J. (1984). Intelligence, cognitive skills, and early reading progress. Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 278–303.
124.
StanovichK. E.NathanR.RossiM. Vala (1986). Developmental changes in the cognitive correlates of reading ability and the developmental lag hypothesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 267–283.
125.
StanovichK. E.NathanR. G.ZolmanJ. E. (1988). The developmental lag hypothesis in reading: Longitudinal and matched reading-level comparisons. Child Development, 59, 71–86.
126.
StanovichK. E.WestR. F. (1989). Exposure to print and orthographic processing. Reading Research Quarterly, 24, 402–433.
127.
StichtT. G.JamesJ. H. (1984). Listening and reading. In PearsonP. D. (Ed.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 293–317). New York: Longman.
128.
TaylorH. G.SatzP.FrielJ. (1979). Developmental dyslexia in relation to other childhood reading disorders: Significance and clinical utility. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 84–101.
129.
ThomsonM. (1982). Assessing the intelligence of dyslexic children. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 35, 94–96.
130.
ThorndikeR. L. (1963). The concepts of over- and under-achievement. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
131.
TindalG.MarstonD. (1986). Approaches to assessment. In TorgesenJ. K.WongB. Y. L. (Eds.), Psychological and educational perspectives on learning disabilities (pp. 55–84). Orlando, FL: Academic Press Inc.
132.
TorgesenJ. (1985). Memory processes in reading disabled children. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 18, 350–357.
133.
TorgesenJ. K. (1986). Controlling for IQ. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 19, 452.
134.
TreimanR.Hirsh-PasekK. (1985). Are there qualitative differences in reading behavior between dyslexics and normal readers?Memory and Cognition, 13, 357–364.
135.
Van den BosK. P. (1989). Relationship between cognitive development, decoding skill, and reading comprehension in learning disabled Dutch children. In AaronP.JoshiM. (Eds.), Reading and writing disorders in different orthographic systems (pp. 75–86). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
136.
Van der WisselA. (1987). IQ profiles of learning disabled and mildly mentally retarded children: A psychometric selection effect. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 45–51.
137.
Van der WisselA.ZegersF. E. (1985). Reading retardation revisited. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 3–9.
138.
VellutinoF. R. (1978). Toward an understanding of dyslexia: Psychological factors in specific reading disability. In BentonA. L.PearlD. (Eds.), Dyslexia (pp. 59–111). New York: Oxford University Press.
139.
VellutinoF. R. (1979). Dyslexia: Theory and research. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
140.
VellutinoF. R.ScanlonD. M. (1987). Phonological coding, phonological awareness, and reading ability: Evidence from a longitudinal and experimental study. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 33, 321–363.
141.
WillowsD. M. (in press). Visual processes in learning disabilities. In WongB. (Ed.), Learning about learning disabilities. New York: Academic Press.
