Dyslexia: A Neuroscientific Approach to Clinical Evaluation

The field of learning disabilities is receiving considerable public and academic scrutiny, as there is a growing perception of its pervasive relevance to human accomplishment and the quality of life throughout the age span. Relatively subtle central nervous system dysfunctions have been recognized as having a significant impact on school performance and behavioral adjustment in large numbers of children of normal intelligence. A new monograph,Dyslexia: ANeuroscientific Approach to Clinical Evaluation, edited by Frank H. Duffy, MD, and the late Norman Geschwind, MD, is an informative and provocative volume that presents a number of perspectives on the "cutting edge" of this field. The central theme of this collection of papers (originally presented at a symposium on dyslexia in 1981) concerns some newer insights and techniques dealing with the mechanisms underlying specific reading disabilities. The emphasis is on medically oriented approaches, although two of the reports probe linguistic issues in