c Copyright 2011 Katherine Nichole Deibel Understanding and ...

Reading Disabilities 15
abilities will grow rusty and inefficient without regular practice. Simply put, a person needs the opportunity
and encouragement to practice reading beyond the initial instruction.
The definition used by Dickinson et al. (2002) fails to exclude another potential reason for poor reading
performance: poor vision. Many definitions of reading disabilities also recommend ruling out any potential
visual impairments before labeling a person as having an RD (Evans, 2001). Being blind or having low
vision is a sensory disability, not a reading disability. 3 Additionally, vision problems like nearsightedness,
farsightedness, and astigmatisms can hinder the reading process by inducing physical strain and exhaustion
when reading. Evans, a professor of optometry, has experienced and commented about multiple cases of
children struggling with reading showing marked improvement after receiving proper vision care (2001).
1.1.2 Working Definition
Reasonable alternatives are thus always ruled out before diagnosing a reading disability. Although it may
seem unscientific to define RD as poor reading performance for reasons not identified, remember that reading
disabilities are best thought of as a syndrome of related conditions. Moreover, reading itself is a complex
process and problems can manifest at any point or points in that process. Diversity is to be expected. This is
why after ruling out other possibilities, additional neuropsychological exams are then administered to better
understand the exact nature of the person’s reading disability (Edwards, 1994; Peer, 2001; Ashton, 2001).
Thus, the definition of reading disability used in this dissertation reflects both ruling out alternatives and the
inherent diversity possible:
A reading disability is a syndrome of multiple conditions in which a person experiences difficulty
with one or more aspects of the reading process despite possessing sufficient intelligence,
learning, practice, and sensory capability.
1.2 Related Terminology
As shown in Figure 2.1, reading disabilities are a subset of several classes of disability. Although this
dissertation focuses on RDs, these other classes occur frequently enough in the literature to warrant a brief
coverage here. Working inward, this all begins with the concept of disability. As defined by the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) (1990) and the World Health Organization (Sears & Young, 2003), a disability is
a physical or mental difference/impairment that negatively impacts one or more major life activities. 4
One major subclass of disability is cognitive disabilities. Associated with the brain and its functioning,
these disabilities affect aspects of learning, memory, emotions, thinking, sensory processing, socialization,
and communication (American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2000; Dawe, 2006). They also range in degree
of severity: mild, moderate, severe, and profound. Thus, a broad range of conditions are considered cognitive
disabilities. Psychological conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression are members of