Dyslexia: A Cognitive Developmental Perspective

This book sets out a new framework for understanding both the development of reading and spelling skills and the problems many children have in acquiring them.

Developmental dyslexia is best understood, Margaret Snowling argues, in terms of the interaction between a child's cognitive make up and the demands of learning to read. At critical times in their development, dyslexic children do not possess the specific cognitive skills which are conducive to reading and spelling.

Making clear the limitations of traditional 'medical' and 'educational' theories of dyslexia, Margaret Snowling writes from the standpoint of cognitive and developmental psychology. She considers not only the causes of reading and spelling problems, but also how in spite of their difficulties dyslexic children can and do learn to read - how they accomplish a level of literacy which initially seems beyond them. She concludes by asking what psychological research can tell us about the best means of helping dyslexic children.

Margaret Snowling is Lecturer in Psychology at the National Hospitals College of Speech Sciences and Research Fellow at University College, London in the Department of Psychology.