http://edrev.asu.edu/index.php/ER/article/view/1891/509
Reviewed by William L. Brown
Independent Consultant United States
Please do read the whole review!The book outlines interventions for those at risk of reading disability, to enable them to catch up with their peers. Key elements include:
• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Spelling/writing
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension
The authors note that most research studies have shown the particular value of phonics-based approaches for young readers. Schemes with greater emphasis on phonics tend to have greater effects on improving reading ability.
One of the most-cited reading researchers (Stanovich) has been quoted as stating: “No term has so impeded the scientific study of reading, as well as the public’s understanding of reading disability, as the term dyslexia. The retiring of the word is long overdue” (p. 182). Elliott and Grigorenko (2014 web), the authors of this volume, state: “One thing that many parents feel that they can do is lobby for their child. In such circumstances, it is unsurprising that so many parents seek a dyslexia assessment with all the advantages that this promises. However, as The Dyslexia Debate demonstrates, parents are being misled by claims that such assessments are scientifically rigorous, and that a diagnosis will point to more effective forms of treatment” [Emphasis in the original].
Dyslexia is fundamentally a deficiency of decoding skills. Treating the recognition of whole words as the essence of early reading could reasonably be considered as a source of the prevalence of this condition (see Orton, 1929). Moving toward modifying the method for teaching beginning reading, rather than trying to find some deficiency in the intellectual makeup of the young reader, could well become a civil rights initiative in the future.