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In it, he claimed to have little confidence in his ability to define dyslexia, let alone diagnose it, despite 30 years in the field.

That's the money quote.

Maybe 22 years ago I was volunteering at an elementary school. A 1st grader, the child of an acquaintance, was messing up on a simple letter recognition computer game. It was evident that she had problems "Sequencing" the letters she saw. This was one of the rare classic "dyslexic" problems. There really are people who lie awake wondering about the existence of Dog and who should be member of DNA - the National Dyslexic's Association.

I mean, there really are some clear, "frank" neurological problems which are easy to identify.. But there is a vast array of questions, related to the plasticity of brain organization. I am intrigued with the typographical errors which I make and which are encountered so often on FR. It's not a total waste of time for some to speculate about the neurological side of typos.

But it seems to me clear that the response to these problems is, to say the least, vexed. Some people compensate very well, Others are hopeless -- at least they cannot use the currently offered coping methods.

One of the most popular errors, one too frequently encountered, is the error of thinking a persuasive conjecture is a proven fact. Some people clearly have something which might as well be called ADHD. Others are just anxious boys who could use a little more paternal involvement. Differential diagnosis is hard when the pathologies in question haven't been clearly defined.