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Department of Cognitive Science

Seminar Abstract

Neurodevelopmental disorders: Are our current diagnostic labels fit for purpose?

Speaker : Professor Dorothy Bishop, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
Date : 2nd of October 2012, 6:00PM until 7:30PM
Location : Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA, University of Western Australia.

In this lecture, Professor Bishop will illustrate with the case of dyslexia. This is defined on the basis of behavioural tests, and there is no sharp dividing line between dyslexia and normal variation in reading ability. Although there is good evidence that reading difficulties are heritable, dyslexia is not typically caused by a single genetic mutation. Rather, there appear to be a number of common genetic variants, each of which has a small impact on reading ability, and which in combination can lead to someone being unusually good or poor at reading. The same is true for the other neurodevelopmental disorders. Furthermore, the different types of problem commonly co-occur, so children can end up with multiple diagnoses. One response has been to suggest we should abandon labels such as dyslexia or dyspraxia, which are seen as medicalising normal variation. However, we need to be aware that the way we respond to educational difficulties is heavily dependent on the language we use. The lecture will contrast dyslexia with specific language impairment (SLI), which is at least as important but is largely unknown, and consider how far this may be the consequence of the fact that dyslexia is a good ‘meme’, whereas SLI is not. Our current labels may be worth preserving, provided we do not let them mislead us.