Adult Dyslexia and Word Puzzles

Abstract

This article describes how dyslexia is a real disease that is linked to specific semiotic systems, such as the alphabet and word orthographical rules. As such, it is likely to be a result of an asymmetry between developmental cognition and particular semiotic structure. If this is so, then an appropriate intervention approach that is based on this hypothesis might involve the use of word puzzles that play on the alphabetic and semantic structure of words. This article presents the findings of a pilot project in which selected adult dyslexics were asked to participate in a word puzzle study, consisting of word searches, anagrams, and word squares, whereby they would be asked to solve a set of puzzles under the supervision of a researcher. The latter documented and annotated the actual behaviors of the participants as they solved the puzzles. The overall result of the project is a promising one in that it suggests that the use of such “enigmatological” strategies may have a definite role to play in dyslexia intervention, although much more research is needed in this area.