Explaining the Differences Between the Dyslexic and the Garden-Variety Poor Reader

A coherent conception of dyslexia has been difficult to arrive at because research findings have continually created logical paradoxes for the psychometric definition of reading disability. This paper develops the phonological-core variable-difference model. This model of the cognitive characteristics of dyslexic children is one of the few that does not create psychometric paradoxes of the type that have plagued the learning disabilities field. The model provides a way to conceptualize the differences between dyslexic and garden-variety poor readers. The model highlights the importance of viewing the concept of dyslexia as the outcome of the application of an arbitrary criterion in a continuous distribution, thus avoiding the connotations of discreteness that have continually undermined our understanding of reading disability.