Originally published in 1983, recent advances in cognitive psychology had revealed that reading and spelling disabilities may be due to deficits in basic cognitive processes. Dr Jorm looks at each type of disability in detail, in relation to normality as well as intellectual disability (formerly called retardation), and finds that the new research provides a useful approach to seemingly intractable problems. He covers a broad range of topics, including the social context of reading disabilities, the role of biological factors, remedial teaching, and prevention of literacy problems. He also gives a forward-looking account of how research at the time on the cognitive processes in comprehension might aid our understanding of the relatively neglected group of children who can read individual words yet fail to comprehend adequately.

Reading disabilities are increasingly serious in a culture which places an ever higher value on literacy, and the discoveries of the cognitive psychologists are presented here in a way that will still be accessible to all those teachers and parents who want to know about developments in the past.