Dyslexia and its counterparts: A clinical and psychometric perspective on the typology and diagnosis of children’s reading disorders

Abstract

This article is designed as a synthesis of a brief analytical overview of dyslexia research conducted abroad, in the USSR, and in modern Russia, with the findings from the author’s own long-term investigationscarried out in different years. It focuses primarily on the diagnostic differentiation between various forms of children’s reading disorders. The latter is inextricably linked to the definition of dyslexia, which has been repeatedly revised in global scholarship, but in Russia remains largely unchanged since the 1970s. The institutional standpoint and its influence on the overall understanding of the problem was discussed. A critical evaluation of the views held by educational institutions on a differentiated approach to the dyslexia diagnosis and intervention was provided. All available data gathered via multidisciplinary clinical and psychological research on dyslexia as a distinct reading impairment were summarized. The results of a study on non-dyslexic, non-specific forms of reading disorders in children with primary developmental language disorder and in children with mental retardation were presented as a new practical material obtained using a combination of clinical and psychometric methods. The author’s concept and diagnostic principles for distinguishing between specific and non-specific reading disorders in children were proposed.