DYSLEXIA AND YOUR CHILD: A Guide for Teachers and Parents

Defined broadly, per current practice, dyslexia is synonymous with reading disability; as Dr. Wagner recognizes, causes are multifarious and not yet fully understood, and treatment is best confined to remedying manifest weaknesses. He would help the parent, primarily, to proceed in the absence of experts by first sketching in, then specifying, the characteristics of the impaired reader, and subsequently providing corrective exercises. There is a lacuna between the two, however, in terms of diagnosis: only the incidence of error, not its nature, can be gleaned from the suggested reading tests; and, with the exception of reversal errors, for which separate tests are provided, it will be difficult for the parent to spot a special difficulty. By and large, too, the suggested ""fifteen minutes a day"" of home work is standard remedial instruction -- with several sensible cautions including not duplicating what's ""apparently"" (?) being done in school. One has only to look at Roswell and Natchez's text, Reading Disability (new ed. 1971), to appreciate the advantage of a thorough, systematic approach, and certainly it would be the preferred source for teachers whom it addresses directly. The present book could nonetheless help parents recognize the problem and stop pressuring the child.