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ABSTRACT: In this article, the reason why certain terms, labels, and ideas prevail, whereas others fail to gain acceptance, will be considered. Borrowing the concept of "meme" from the study of evolution of ideas, it will be clear why language-based and phonological disorders have less widespread appeal than, for example, auditory processing and sensory integration disorders. Discussion will also center on why most speech-language pathologists refer to themselves as speech therapists or speech pathologists, and why it is more desirable to have dyslexia than to have a reading disability. In a meme's eye view, science and logic do not always win out because selection favors ideas (memes) that are easy to understand, remember, and copy. An unfortunate consequence of these selection forces is that successful memes typically provide superficially plausible answers for complex questions.
KEY WORDS: memes, speech-language pathology, language disorder, auditory processing disorder, sensory integration disorder
Did you ever wonder why most speech-language pathologists refer to themselves as speech therapists, why most people do not know what a phonological disorder is, or why the number of children with an auditory processing disorder has increased dramatically in recent years? Why do some terms, labels, ideas, and constructs prevail whereas others fail to gain acceptance? Why did it take until 1997 for the Journal of Speech and Hearing Research to add "language" to its title? Why is it more desirable to have dyslexia than to have a reading disability? Why docs no one other than speech-language pathologists and related professionals seem to know what a language disorder is? Why is Asperger's syndrome, a relatively new disorder, already familiar to many people?
To answer these questions, it is helpful to borrow concepts from the study of the evolution and spread of ideas. Several years ago, Stanovich (2000) borrowed these concepts to explain why science seemed to be losing the Reading War to what he called "the whole language disinformation campaign." In order to explain why misinformation wins and scientific information loses, it is necessary to find something that explains situations in which the truth value of an idea is not the primary determinant of its use.
THE SELFISH MEME
At the end of his seminal book, The Selfish Gene, Dawkins (1976) proposed the existence of a...