[Sense and nonsense with respect to the gene for dyslexia]

Genetic studies recently reported linkages between two chromosomal regions and two phenotypes of dyslexia. These findings should not be taken to mean that the gene for dyslexia has been discovered. It is argued that a gene for dyslexia is improbable. The difficulty in learning to read is of a multidimensional nature, of which the features are not yet unequivocally known. Deficits and strategies of the child learning to read still have to be disentangled and environmental as well as biological variables define the condition. Furthermore, as reading is a rather novel acquisition of mankind, an evolutionary explanation seems rather questionable.