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The authors report findings on reading and IQ from a contemporary study of 145 individually tested incarcerated men and women in two maximum-security prisons in Louisiana. To their knowledge this study is the first to use the definition of dyslexia from the First Step Act (FSA) and the first to incorporate an IQ measure to differentiate those with dyslexia from individuals with cognitive impairment. The authors' findings indicate that almost half (47%) of the participants are classified as having dyslexia, 36% proficient, and 17% cognitive impairment. Both dyslexic prisoners and nondyslexic prisoners reported academic and behavioral problems in school that led to decreased years in school and decreased high school graduation rates, with 87% reporting dropping out of school with many inmates dropping out in middle school (mean age of completion of 9.6 years of school), 97% reporting having been in special education or received accommodations, and 59% having failed to receive a high school diploma or equivalency. The authors note that although the FSA calls for the Bureau of Prisons to screen prisoners for dyslexia using a screener that is evidence-based, with proven psychometrics for validity, efficiency and low cost, as well as readily available, a screener is not a diagnostic instrument and we discuss the next steps after inmates are screened as being dyslexic.

We review the evolution of the conceptualisation of dyslexia and along with it the current, 21st century definition of dyslexia. Our starting point is the seminal report by Pringle Morgan in 1896, followed by early 20th century reports by Hinshelwood, and continuing with concepts of brain injury and minimal brain dysfunctions then to the emergence of 'learning disability' in the mid-20th century. Within this historical framework we note the emergence and scientific validation of an 'unexpected' model culminating in the first definition of dyslexia in U.S. federal law in late 2018 and in recent U.S. federal civil rights law. We next address the issue of whether dyslexia is 'real' by showing how advances in non-invasive functional brain imaging have led to a replicated, robust neural signature for dyslexia. We close by illustrating how science has informed policy, emphasising the focus on evidence-based practices beginning with the report of the National Reading Panel and including the creation of the What Works Clearinghouse. Early screening for dyslexia represents another important policy accomplishment with dyslexia laws now passed in over 30 states. Evidence-based effective interventions for dyslexia, including free, public charter schools specialised for dyslexic children exemplify the most recent policy initiative.

Identifying change at the individual level is an important goal for researchers, educators, and clinicians. We present a set of statistical procedures for identifying individuals who depart from a normative change. Using Latent Change Scores models (LCS), we illustrate how the Individual Likelihood computed from a statistical model for change ("IL") and from an alternative unrestricted model ("ILsat") can be used to identify atypical trajectories in situations with several measurement occasions. Using LCS and linear regression, we also show how the observed and latent change residuals can be used to identify atypical individual change between 2 measurement occasions. We apply these methods to a measure of general verbal ability (from WISC-R), from a large sample of individuals assessed every 2 years from Grade 1 to 9. We demonstrate the efficiency of these techniques, illustrate their use to identify individual change in longitudinal data, and discuss potential applications in developmental research.

We systematically assessed the relationships between growth of four components of verbal ability--Information, Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Revised--and longitudinal growth from Grades 1 to 9 of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Passage Comprehension subtest while controlling for Word Identification and Word Attack, using multilevel growth models on a sample of 414 children. Growth was assessed over all grades (1-9), and separately for early grades (1-5) and later grades (5-9). Over all grades, growth in Word Identification had a substantial standardized loading to Passage Comprehension, and all four verbal abilities had smaller, but significant standardized loadings to Passage Comprehension (p < 0.05), with Information and Vocabulary having slightly higher loadings than Similarities and Comprehension. For early grades, results were similar to the overall results, with the exception of Vocabulary, which had a nonsignificant loading to Passage Comprehension. For later grades, Word Identification again had the largest, but substantially smaller standardized loading on Passage Comprehension and standardized loadings of all four verbal abilities were statistically significant with Vocabulary and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) Comprehension having appreciably higher loadings than in the previous analyses. Conversation- and interaction-based intervention and instruction in oral language in general, and vocabulary in particular throughout early childhood and continuing throughout the school years, combined with evidence-based instruction that systematically develops the skills of phonologic awareness, decoding, word reading, fluency, and comprehension in school, may provide a pathway to reducing the achievement gap in reading.

Response to Intervention (RTI) models of diagnosis and intervention are being implemented rapidly throughout the schools. The purposes of invoking an RTI model for disabilities in the schools clearly are laudable, yet close examination reveals an unappreciated paucity of empirical support for RTI and an overly optimistic view of its practical, problematic issues. Models are being put into practice without adequate research and logistical support and neglect the potential negative long-term impact on students with disabilities. Many implementation problems exist: (a) the vagaries of critical details of the model in practice; (b) the lack of consideration of bright struggling readers; (c) the relativeness, contextual, situation dependent nature of who is identified; (d) the worrisome shortcomings of the RTI process as a means of diagnosis or determination of a disability; and (e) the apparent lack of student-based data to guide effective choice of approaches and components of intervention. Practiced as a model of prevention, the authors agree with the concept of RTI. As the authors witness its application to disability determination sans the benefit of a reliable and valid empirical basis, the potential benefits to some children with disabilities remain an unproven hypothesis while the potential detriment to some children with disabilities remains a very real possibility.

Representing a dramatic shift in education thinking, converging evidence now supports a reliance on findings from rigorous scientific research to guide education policy initiatives in the United States. Particularly for early reading instruction, scientific research has provided the framework for establishing the most effective measures for the identification, remediation, and even prevention of reading difficulties in school-age children. Recent advances in imaging technology, particularly the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging, provide evidence of the neurobiological mechanisms in reading and reading difficulties. These imaging studies show that the brain systems for reading are malleable and that the neural systems for reading in struggling readers may be facilitated by provision of an evidence-based, effective reading intervention. The new science of reading offers the promise for more precise identification and effective management of reading difficulties in children, adolescents, and adults. (Contains 101 notes.)

Simulated data were used to demonstrate that groups formed by imposing cut-points based on either discrepancy or low-achievement definitions of learning disabilities (LD) are unstable over time. Similar problems were demonstrated in longitudinal data from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, where 39% of the children designated as having LD in Grade 3 changed group placement with repeated testing in Grade 5. These results show that the practice of subdividing a normal distribution with arbitrary cut-points leads to instability in group membership. Approaches to the identification of children as having LD based solely on individual test scores not linked to specific behavioral criteria lead to invalid decisions about individual children. Low-achievement definitions are not a viable alternative to IQ-discrepancy definitions in the absence of other criteria, such as the traditional exclusions and response to quality intervention. If we accept the premise of multiple classes of low achievers, then we must develop identification systems that are valid and abandon systems whose only merits are their historical precedence and convenience.

Second- and 3rd-grade children with poor word-level skills were randomly assigned to 8 months of explicit instruction emphasizing the phonologic and orthographic connections in words and text-based reading or to remedial reading programs provided by the schools. At posttest, treatment children showed significantly greater gains than control children in real word and nonword reading, reading rate, passage reading, and spelling, and largely maintained gains at a 1-year follow-up. Growth curve analyses indicated significant differences in growth rate during the treatment year, but not during the follow-up year. Results indicate that research-based practices can significantly improve reading and spelling outcomes for children in remedial programs.

A weakness in accessing the sounds of spoken language represents the most robust and specific correlate of reading disability in young school age children and adolescents. Neurological science and reading research that provides the scientific knowledge regarding this disability is presented.

This paper elaborates on components of a working definition of developmental dyslexia proposed in 1995 by G. R. Lyon. The 2003 revised definition, based on converging scientific evidence, was developed by a working group of the International Dyslexia Association. The new definition notes the condition's neurobiologic origin and typical presence of a deficit in the phonological component of language. (Contains references.) (DB)

Conducted a meta-analysis of 46 studies addressing the validity of classifying poor readers by the discrepancy between IQ and reading skills. Children who are poor readers but do not display such a discrepancy are not eligible for special education under the learning disability category. Results provide little evidence in support of the validity of the IQ-discrepancy classification. (SLD)

A study involving boys (grades 4-7) who were highly gifted (n=18), low gifted (n=17), had learning disabilities (n=26), and were typical (n=26), found highly gifted boys exhibited levels of behavioral problems similar to those with learning disabilities, whereas low gifted boys had lower levels than boys with learning disabilities. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Finds high correlations between word reading and nonword reading; and skill in word identification was almost inseparable from the phonologically analytic decoding process that is tapped by nonword reading. Notes differences in reading comprehension were closely associated with differences in decoding skill. (SC)

Eight measures of cognitive and language function of 232 elementary school children were subjected to multiple methods of cluster analysis in an effort to identity subtypes of reading disability. Results, which yielded nine reliable subtypes, suggest that children with reading disability usually display impairments on phonological awareness measures and discriminative variability on other skills. (SLD)

This discussion of issues of definition and classification of attention deficit disorder (ADD) emphasizes the heterogeneity of the diagnosis, the overlap of ADD with reading disability, and lack of consistency across studies. A systematic classification study is proposed to develop a unitary, empirically derived classification for ADD. (Author/DB)

The authors applied linear dynamic models to longitudinal data to examine the dynamics of reading and cognition from 1st to 12th grade. They used longitudinal data (N = 445) from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study (S. E. Shaywitz, B. A. Shaywitz, J. M. Fletcher, & M. D. Escobar, 1990) to map the dynamic interrelations of various scales of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children--Revised (i.e., Full, Performance, and Verbal) and specific markers of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery--Revised reading cluster (i.e., Letter-Word 1D, Decoding, and Comprehension). The results of these analyses indicate that (a) there is a positive dynamic relation between reading and cognition across the selected age range; (b) this dynamic relation is symbiotic, with positive influences in both directions; (c) the influence from cognition to reading is stronger when considering the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children Performance--Revised Performance scale and weaker with the Verbal scale; (d) when examining the different Reading subtests, the influences from cognition are more apparent for LetterWord ID and Comprehension and are less perceptible for Decoding; and (e) the dynamics of reading and cognition appear to be of stronger magnitude during I st to 3rd grade, less strong during 4th to 8th grade, and weaker from 9th to 12th grade. Keywords: longitudinal data analysis, dynamic modeling, reading development, cognitive development

DYX2 on 6p22 is the most replicated reading disability (RD) locus. By saturating a previously identified peak of association with single nucleotide polymorphism markers, we identified a large polymorphic deletion that encodes tandem repeats of putative brain-related transcription factor binding sites in intron 2 of DCDC2. Alleles of this compound repeat are in significant disequilibrium with multiple reading traits. RT-PCR data show that DCDC2 localizes to the regions of the brain where fluent reading occurs, and RNA interference studies show that down-regulation alters neuronal migration. The statistical and functional studies are complementary and are consistent with the latest clinical imaging data for RD. Thus, we propose that DCDC2 is a candidate gene for RD. dyslexia | DYX2 | disequilibrium | haplotype | doublecortin

Second- and 3rd-grade children with poor word-level skills were randomly assigned to 8 months of explicit instruction emphasizing the phonologic and orthographic connections in words and text-based reading or to remedial reading programs provided by the schools. At posttest, treatment children showed significantly greater gains than control children in real word and nonword reading, reading rate, passage reading, and spelling, and largely maintained gains at a 1-year follow-up. Growth curve analyses indicated significant differences in growth rate during the treatment year, but not during the follow-up year. Results indicate that research-based practices can significantly improve reading and spelling outcomes for children in remedial programs.

An earlier discussion on the weaknesses of phonics-heavy reading instruction appears to ignore decades of research predating brain imaging. It is argued that a deficit in phonology is the strongest and most specific correlate of reading disability, a finding that forms the basis of successful and evidence-based approaches to reading instruction and to interventions for struggling readers.