Explaining the Differences Between the Dyslexic and the Garden-Variety Poor Reader

1988/12/01 by Keith E. Stanovich · 3 citations
Mathematics · Psychology · #Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills #Hearing Impairment and Communication #Reading and Literacy Development

paper · doi:10.1177/002221948802101003

crossref issued 1988/12/01 · crossref published 1988/12/01 · crossref published-online 1988/12/01 · crossref published-print 1988/12/01 · openalex publication_date 1988/12/01 · crossref created 2008/12/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · crossref deposited 2026/05/01 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

A coherent conception of dyslexia has been difficult to arrive at because research findings have continually created logical paradoxes for the psychometric definition of reading disability. This paper develops the phonological-core variable-difference model. This model of the cognitive characteristics of dyslexic children is one of the few that does not create psychometric paradoxes of the type that have plagued the learning disabilities field. The model provides a way to conceptualize the differences between dyslexic and garden-variety poor readers. The model highlights the importance of viewing the concept of dyslexia as the outcome of the application of an arbitrary criterion in a continuous distribution, thus avoiding the connotations of discreteness that have continually undermined our understanding of reading disability.

Citations

• Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy

Cited by

• Influence of increased letter spacing and font type on the reading ability of dyslexic children
• Syntactic skills in sentence reading comprehension among Chinese elementary school children
• The structure of oral language and reading and their relation to comprehension in Kindergarten through Grade 2

Related

• Converging evidence for phonological and surface subtypes of reading disability.
• Defining and understanding dyslexia: past, present and future
• Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades?
• Subtypes of reading disability: Variability around a phonological core.
• Toward a consensus on dyslexia: findings from a Delphi study