A National Advisory Committee on Dyslexia and Related Reading Disorders has been formed, according to an announcement by Wilbur J. Cohen, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Dr. Arleigh B. Templeton, President of Sam Houston State College in Huntsville, Texas, was named Chairman of the Advisory Committee. The members of the Committee are outstanding leaders in the fields of education, neurology, laryngology and audiology, ophthalmology, optometry, pediatrics, psychiatry, and psychology.
Investigators now estimate that reading disorders are more widespread than has been formerly assumed-affecting to a greater or lesser degree up to as many as 20% of school children. Dyslexia can occur in association with other conditions, but children having this type of reading disorder are not generally inferior in intelligence, and some are intellectually gifted.