Phonological Dyslexia and Dysgraphia in a Highly Literate Subject: A Developmental Case with Associated Deficits of Phonemic Processing and Awareness

Abstract

This paper describes some aspects of reading and writing in a highly literate subject who has unusual difficulty in reading and spelling non-words. No cerebral trauma is indicated, and she performs at above average levels on standard tests of reading, spelling and cognitive ability. Only digit span is significantly impaired. Although auditory phoneme discrimination is normal, she performs poorly on aural tasks, like rhyme judgement and homophone matching, that require awareness of phonemic structure, and she is impaired at segmenting heard words into their component sounds. Tests of immediate memory confirm abnormal span and indicate a failure to use normal phonological coding in immediate recall. We argue that a deficit in phonological processing underlies impaired performance on tasks of reading, spelling and immediate memory.