The Neuropsychology of Reading Disorders: A Global Perspective on Literacy

The Neuropsychology of Reading Disorders: A Global Perspective on Literacy

/ Vol 8-Nº 1 ene-jun 2025 /

Dr. Steven G. Feifer, D.Ed., ABPdN 1*

INTRODUCTION

Imagine being a professional educator some 200 years ago, when the literacy rate across the globe was a mere 12% and compulsory education had not yet come to fruition. Needless to say, business was not exactly robust in our nations’ public-school systems. Furthermore, the thought of diagnosing a student with a reading disability and recommending special education services in a non-literate world simply defied all aspects of logic. The fundamental tenets of compulsory education did not formally begin in the United States until 1837 when a lawyer by trade, Horace Mann, overhauled the public education system in Massachusetts, and established a series of schools to train teachers. There were six overarching principles that Mann proposed for public education that continue to serve as its core foundational principles1:

1. citizens cannot maintain both ignorance and freedom,
2. education should be paid for, controlled and maintained by the public,
3. education should embrace children from varying backgrounds,
4. education must be nonsectarian,
5. education should be taught using tenets of a free society,
6. education should be provided by well-trained, professional teachers.

These educational tenets provided the foundational infrastructure for the eventual creation of the National Educational Association some 100 years ago. The National Education Association was established using federal funds to finance public schools, and mandated formal educational training for all children. At that time, the world’s literacy rate had risen to just a shade over 30 percent, with some parts of the United States boasting a 70 percent literacy rate (See Figure 1). A tangible question soon emerged: What exactly is literacy?

*Corresponding author:

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Dr. Steven G. Feifer, D.Ed., ABPdN, Monocacy Neurodevelopmental Center, 65 Thomas Johnson Drive, Suite A, Frederick, MD 21702. Phone: 301-606-8038 Email: sfeifer@monocacycenter.com