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As the eponymous title The Science of Reading suggested, the aim of the first edition of this handbook was to bring together scientific studies of reading into a state‐of‐the‐art review. The preface of that volume stated “The science of reading is mature and healthy as the contributions to this volume make clear.” Our aim in this second edition remained the same – to bring together scientific studies of reading into an updated overview of the field; as we shall see, old questions have been answered and new questions have arisen as understanding of the complexities of reading has deepened, driven by theoretical insights and methodological advances.

Part 1 deals with word recognition processes in skilled reading. This is a natural starting point: Words are the building blocks of reading and without adequate word identification, reading comprehension is compromised. With a review of the skilled system as a backdrop, Part 2 considers the development of word reading. Although knowledge of word recognition processes and their development was already advanced fifteen years ago, each of the chapters in Parts 1 and 2 highlights new findings and research directions. A number of themes emerge, not least a greater recognition of the need to unite theories about development and learning with theories about skilled processing – after all, reading in proficient adults is the product of many years of reading experience that has optimized the reading system to the task in hand. Another important development has been to better understand how morphological structure is represented in written language, and how this is accessed and used during word recognition. Like the mappings between orthography and phonology, morphological information is systematically represented in orthography in ways that reflect graded regularities. Learning to read efficiently requires children to develop a reading system that adequately embodies the distributional information coded by the writing system. In line with this view, several chapters emphasize statistical learning approaches that view skilled reading as the emergent product of interactions between readers and texts.

Word recognition is the front end of skilled processing and is central to learning to read, but much more is required to allow understanding of the texts we read. Part 3 focuses on the complexities of reading comprehension and its development. Key developments since the first edition include an emphasis on the need for greater integration between different levels of enquiry – word recognition, sentence processing, and discourse processing have tended to be different research streams, each with its own traditions, assumptions, and methodologies. While these different approaches have often been considered as separate, these chapters stress that comprehension is multifactorial – not a single entity so much as a product, constructed by multiple cognitive processes operating over a text, in concert with background knowledge. There are important implications for the classroom, not least the observation that reading comprehension might fail for many different reasons.

Part 4 turns to reading in different languages, a field that has burgeoned in recent years. While the science of reading is still dominated by studies in English, reading scientists agree that theories must pay attention to the universal features of reading as well as those that develop from specific experiences with particular writing systems. Here, chapters provide overviews of alphabetic, alpha‐syllabic, and Chinese orthographies, and elsewhere in the book, reference is made to research emanating from different writing systems.

Part 5 considers reading disorders. As in the first edition, there are chapters on both developmental and acquired disorders of reading. In the current volume, there is more convergence between these two strands of research, both noting that selective deficits are rare in developmental as well as in acquired dyslexic populations. Importantly, there is an intimate relationship between reading and language as seen from the perspective of learning to read with a language or hearing impairment as well as in some acquired dyslexias. New to this model is consideration of cognitive models of comorbidity among dyslexia, mathematics disorder, and ADHD, underlining the interconnections between the cognitive and brain systems that underpin reading.

Finally, Part 6 is concerned with aetiology and considers both the biological and social factors that are associated with learning to read. The chapters take us from molecular genetics to the environment provided by parents, classrooms and neighborhoods. They remind us that reading is complex and that to understand it we need to consider genetic influences and their interaction with multiple environmental factors during development. It closes with a detailed review of the neural bases of reading and its development. Neuroimaging methods have expanded since the first edition of the handbook and an important development has been consideration of neuroimaging data in the context of both cognitive and developmental theories.

Although advances in knowledge are expected in an active research field, the rise of The Science of Reading as a movement aiming to use empirical evidence from scientific studies of reading to inform education and teacher knowledge, and to translate from the laboratory to the classroom was unanticipated by the first edition of this handbook. The International Literacy Association defines the Science of Reading as “a corpus of objective investigation and accumulation of reliable evidence about how humans learn to read and how reading should be taught.” Not every reading scientist is working on developmental issues and even fewer focus on the translation of research findings to practice. We believe it is important that research continues at a basic and “laboratory level.” However, knowledge gained from basic science can and should be used to inform instructional approaches – and this is the difficult part. Reading practitioners have an important role to play in partnership with researchers by providing vital expertise about classrooms, cultures, and contexts, factors often downplayed in cognitive models. It is only when these are understood that it will be possible to implement evidence‐based programs of literacy instruction that are sustainable in communities and cultures around the world.

As this second edition is published, it is tempting to forecast what developments might feature in a hypothetical third edition. Reading and writing go hand in hand, but it remains the case that scientific studies of reading are far more common than scientific studies of writing, and those studies of writing that exist focus heavily on spelling and much less so on sentence or discourse level writing. Learning to be literate demands that children write effectively as well as read, and there are theoretical reasons to consider the production demands of writing as critical to comprehension. We hope in the coming years that there will be more work on the science of writing and that this will be integrated with studies of reading.

We also predict more research that connects issues in learning to read with those studied in the context of skilled reading, both in terms of word reading and comprehension processes. There is certainly room for more theoretical connection, and for methodological and statistical approaches to be shared, including the exciting developments that will enhance our understanding of the genetic and neural underpinnings of reading. Individual differences in reading are already well‐represented in this edition. Nevertheless, important questions remain, not least when considering the role of linguistic, cultural, and contextual influences in the home and school environment. We also predict greater awareness of individual differences in adults.

Finally, as research connects across the lifespan, we might also consider the fate of people who leave school with low levels of literacy. Even in high‐income countries, approximately 20% of 15‐year‐olds do not attain the levels of literacy needed to allow them to participate effectively in life. These individuals are underrepresented in scientific studies of reading, and arguably too in terms of evidence‐informed adult education and support in the community.

Maggie Snowling, Charles Hulme, Kate Nation

2021