Preview

Kazan Journal of Historical, Linguistic, and Legal Research

Advanced search

Dyslexia and its counterparts: A clinical and psychometric perspective on the typology and diagnosis of children’s reading disorders

https://doi.org/10.26907/2541-7738.2025.4.19-38

Abstract

This article is designed as a synthesis of a brief analytical overview of dyslexia research conducted abroad, in the USSR, and in modern Russia, with the findings from the author’s own long-term investigationscarried out in different years. It focuses primarily on the diagnostic differentiation between various forms of children’s reading disorders. The latter is inextricably linked to the definition of dyslexia, which has been repeatedly revised in global scholarship, but in Russia remains largely unchanged since the 1970s. The institutional standpoint and its influence on the overall understanding of the problem was discussed. A critical evaluation of the views held by educational institutions on a differentiated approach to the dyslexia diagnosis and intervention was provided. All available data gathered via multidisciplinary clinical and psychological research on dyslexia as a distinct reading impairment were summarized. The results of a study on non-dyslexic, non-specific forms of reading disorders in children with primary developmental language disorder and in children with mental retardation were presented as a new practical material obtained using a combination of clinical and psychometric methods. The author’s concept and diagnostic principles for distinguishing between specific and non-specific reading disorders in children were proposed.

About the Author

A. N. Kornev
St. Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation
Russian Federation

Alexandr N. Kornev, Dr. Sci. (Psychology), Associate Professor, Head of Department of Speech Pathology



References

1. Dehaene S., Cohen L., Morais J., Kolinsky R. Illiterate to literate: Behavioral and cerebral changes induced by reading acquisition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2015, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 233–234. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3924.

2. Kornev A.N. Narushenie chtenya i pis’ma u detei [Reading and Writing Disorders in Children]. St. Petersburg, Rech’, 2003. 330 p. (In Russian)

3. Kornev A.N., Balčiūnienė I. Story (re-)telling and reading in children with dyslexia: Language or cognitive resource deficit? LSCD 2014: Workshop on Late Stages in Speech and Communication Development. London, UCL, 2014, pp. 23–26.

4. Kornev A.N., Oganov S.R. Variability of strategies for processing written text: Analysis of eye movements in second to fourth-year students reading descriptive texts. In: Barabanshchikov V.A. et al. (Eds.). Aitreking v psikhologicheskoi nauke i praktike [Eye Tracking in Psychology Science and Practice]. Moscow, OOO “Kogito-Tsentr”, 2016, pp. 279–286. (In Russian)

5. Oganov S.R., Kornev A.N. Saccadic eye movements as an indicator of individual variability in strategies for text processing: Reading of scientific texts by second to fourth-year students. In: Allakhverdov V.M., Dmitrieva N.V., Zashchirinskaya O.V., Kostromina S.N., Kotova S.A., Chernigovskaya T.V., Shelepin Yu.E. (Eds.). Kognitivnaya psikhologiya: metodologiya i praktika [Cognitive Psychology: Methodology and Practice]. St. Petersburg, Izd. VVM, 2015, pp. 212–220. (In Russian)

6. Best R.M., Floyd R.G., McNamara D.S. Differential competencies contributing to children’s comprehension of narrative and expository texts. Reading Psychology, 2008, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 137–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02702710801963951.

7. Oganov S.R., Kornev A.N. Oculomotor characteristics as indicators of written text analysis skills formation in children aged 9–11 and 12–14. Spetsial’noe Obrazovanie, 2017, no. 3, pp. 112–121. (In Russian)

8. Critchley M. The Dyslexic Child. London, Heinemann Med., 1970. 137 p.

9. Matějček Z. Dyslexie. Praha, SPN, 1987. 238 s. (In Czech)

10. Grigorenko E.L., Elliot J.J. Chtenie o chtenii [Reading about Reading]. Voronezh, AIST, 2012. 415 p. (In Russian)

11. Kirby P. Dyslexia debated, then and now: A historical perspective on the dyslexia debate. Oxford Review of Education, 2020, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 472–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1747418.

12. Peterson R.L., Pennington B.F. Developmental dyslexia. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2015, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 283–307. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032814-112842.

13. Martin A., Kronbichler M., Richlan F. Dyslexic brain activation abnormalities in deep and shallow orthographies: A meta-analysis of 28 functional neuroimaging studies. Human Brain Mapping, 2016, vol. 37, no. 7, pp. 2676–2699. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23202.

14. Volkova L.S. et al. Logopediya [Speech Therapy]. Volkova L.S. (Ed.). Moscow, VLADOS, 2008. 703 p. (In Russian)

15. Lalaeva R.I. Narusheniya chteniya i puti ikh korrektsii u mladshikh shkol’nikov [Reading Disorders and Their Remediation in Elementary School Children]. St. Petersburg, Lenizdat, Soyuz, 2002. 222 p. (In Russian)

16. Levina R.E. (Ed.) Osnovy teorii i praktiki logopedii [Theory and Practice of Speech Therapy]. Moscow, Prosveshchenie, 1968. 367 p. (In Russian)

17. Spirova L.F., Yastrebova A.V. A differentiated approach to the signs of writing and reading disorders in students of general education schools. Defektologiya, 1988, no. 5, pp. 3–9. (In Russian)

18. Isaev D.N., Karpova A.N., Karpov B.A. Pathogenetic analysis of the mechanisms underlying reading disorders in oligophrenic children based on eye tracking. In: Isaev D.N. et al. (Eds.) Problemy obshchego psikhicheskogo nedorazvitiya [Problems of General Intellectual Impairment]. Leningrad, s.n., 1976, pp. 122–134. (In Russian)

19. Kornev A.N., Efremov K.D. On two variants of dyslexia in children. In: Vyyavlenie i korrektsiya nervno psikhicheskikh i rechevykh rasstroistv u detei [Diagnosis and Intervention in Children’s Intellectual and Language Impairments]. Volkova L.S. et al. (Eds.). Leningrad, LGPI, 1985, pp. 155–161. (In Russian)

20. Kornev A.N. Dyslexia, its clinical and psychological analysis in children with mental retardation and oligophrenia. Extended Abstract of Cand. Sci. (Medicine) Diss. Leningrad, 1982. 280 p. (In Russian)

21. Carroll J.M., Holden C., Kirby P., Thompson P.A., Snowling M.J., the Dyslexia Delphi Panel. Toward a consensus on dyslexia: Findings from a Delphi study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2025, vol. 66, no. 7, pp. 1065–1076. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14123.

22. Ziegler J.C., Bertrand D., Tóth D., Csepe V., Reis A., Faísca L., Saine N., Lyytinen H., Vaessen A., Blomert L. Orthographic depth and its impact on universal predictors of reading: A cross-language investigation. Psychological Science, 2010, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 551–559. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610363406.

23. Panasyuk A.Yu. Adaptirovannyi variant metodiki Vekslera WISC [Adapted Version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)]. Moscow, s.n., 1973. 79 p. (In Russian)

24. Kornev A.N., Balčiūnienė I., Selezneva M.G., Sorokin A.A. How to compute reading development strategy? Evidence from Russian-speaking children. Ser.: Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications. Utka A., Grigonytė G., Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė J., Vaičenonienė J. (Eds.). Vol. 268: Human Language Technologies – The Baltic Perspective. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference Baltic HLT 2014. Amsterdam, IOS Press, 2014, pp. 196–201. https://doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-442-8-196.

25. Kornev A.N., Stoljarova E.I., Galperina E.I., Guillemard D.M. Formation of sensorimotor mechanisms in syllable production during the initial stage of reading acquisition. Pediatr, 2014, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 85–94. (In Russian)

26. Kornev A.N. Stepwise formation of writing and reading working units as a basic algorithm for mastering these skills. In: Narusheniya pis’ma i chteniya u detei: Izucheniya i korrektsiya [Writing and Reading Disorders in Children: Analysis and Intervention]. Moscow, LOGOMAG, 2018, pp. 6–23. (In Russian)

27. Menshikova N.D., Kornev A.N. Standardized assessment of the formation of lexical and semantic language subsystems in children of primary school age with dyslexia. National Health, 2022, no. 2, pp. 118–123. (In Russian)

28. Menshikova N.D., Kornev A.N. Functions of programming and control in dyslexic children aged 9–11 years: An experimental study of task modality. In: Tsentral’nye mekhanizmy rechi. Sb. materialov X Vseros. (s mezhdunar. uchastiem) nauch.-prakt. konf. im. prof. N.N. Traugott [Central Mechanisms of Speech. Proc. X All-Russ. (Int. Participation) Sci.-Pract. Conf. Dedicated to Professor N.N. Traugott]. Gal’perina E.I. (Ed.). St. Petersburg, VVM, 2022, p. 99. (In Russian)

29. Oganov S.R. Psychological mechanisms of reading disorders in dyslexic children aged 9–12 years. Cand. Sci. (Psychology) Diss. St. Petersburg, 2025. (In Russian)

30. Kornev A.N. Children’s learning ability and intelligence. In: Razvivayushchee obuchenie: voprosy metodologii i tekhnologii [Developmental Education: Problems of Methodology and Technology]. Vol. 2: Proceedings of Sci.-Methodol. Conf., February 18–19, 1998. Alekseeva M.B. et al. (Eds.). St. Petersburg, Sudarynya, 1998, pp. 68–80. (In Russian)

31. Vygotsky L.S. Pedagogicheskaya psikhologya [Educational Psychology]. Moscow, Pedagogika-Press, 1999. 533 p. (In Russian)

32. Inshakova O.B. (Ed.) Pis’mo i chtenie: trudnosti obucheniya i korrektsiya [Writing and Reading: Difficulties in Teaching and Intervention]. Moscow, Mosk. Psikhol.-Sots. Inst.; Voronezh, MODEK, 2007. 288 p. (In Russian)

33. Rusetskaya M.N. Strategies for overcoming dyslexia among children with language impairment in general education system. Dr. Sci. (Pedagogy) Diss. Moscow, 2009. 288 p. (In Russian)

34. Kiseleva V.S. Diagnostic signs of mixed dyslexia. Extended Abstract of Cand. Sci. (Pedagogy) Diss. Moscow, 2010. 184 p. (In Russian)

35. Kornev A.N., Ishimova O.A. Metodika diagnostiki disleksii u detei [Methods for Diagnosing Dyslexia in Children]. St. Petersburg, Izd. Politekh. Univ., 2010. 70 p. (In Russian)

36. Kornev A.N. Osnovy logopatologii detskogo vozrasta: klinicheskie i psikhologicheskie aspekty [The Basics of Developmental Speech Pathology: Clinical and Psychological Issues]. St. Petersburg, Rech’, 2006. 380 p. (In Russian)


Review

For citations:


Kornev A.N. Dyslexia and its counterparts: A clinical and psychometric perspective on the typology and diagnosis of children’s reading disorders. Kazan Journal of Historical, Linguistic, and Legal Research. 2025;167(4):19-38. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26907/2541-7738.2025.4.19-38

Views: 9


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2541-7738 (Print)
ISSN 2500-2171 (Online)