Since dyslexia was first described in the British Medical Journal in 1896, there has been debate about the explanations and diagnostic procedures used, with some casting doubt on its extremely existence. Nevertheless, there is currently a significant body of study regarding the type and characteristics of the fairly common learning disorder. The modern view of dyslexia offers emerged from a hundred years of analysis in medicine, psychology and more recently neuroscience, and we now understand plenty of about Dyslexia: A Very Short Introduction concerning this learning disorder to guide plan and practice.

This Very Short Introduction has an accessible summary of this exciting field of research, you start with its history, and sketching on testimony from people coping with dyslexia. Considering the potential factors behind dyslexia, and taking a look at both hereditary and environment factors, Margaret Snowling displays how cross-linguistic studies have documented the prevalence of dyslexia in various languages. Discussing the many brain scanning techniques that have been utilized to find out if the brains of people with dyslexia differ in structure or function from those of regular readers, Snowling moves on to weigh up different strategies and interventions that may help people living with dyslexia today.