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What's in a word? As Harry Ward Beecher once said, a word is a "peg to hang ideas on." Words, rich in meaning, embody knowledge, ideas, and experience.
This issue of Perspectives on Language and Literacy is about the meanings realized and intended by the term dyslexia. To some, the term conjures an obscure disorder of the visual system that produces symbolic reversals and that affects brilliant (Einstein-ish) males of a privileged class. To others, dyslexia is a common condition present in every classroom and walk of life. Its treatment is informed by a trove of interdisciplinary research on identification, classification, and instruction.
Not only do people disagree about the meaning of the term, but also if and how dyslexia should be addressed. To some, dyslexia is a unique handicapping condition requiring special education by instructors trained in one of a few specific approaches. To others, dyslexia is a gift of cognition associated with problem-solving ability and creativity. And in some circles, especially some public school environments, dyslexia is such a contaminated term, associated with what are perceived as unreasonable demands by zealous parents or advocates, that its use is discouraged or banned.
To decontaminate and demystify the term, leading experts in 2002 synthesized the findings of interdisciplinary scientific research to write a definition of dyslexia. Their definition, as approved by the International Dyslexia Association and the National Institute of...