Developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia persistence in middle age.
J.R. is a middle-aged man whose developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia have persisted in a problematic fashion for the 30 years since he left school. He is a phonological dyslexic. Whereas surface dyslexics operate on reading units that are too small, Mr. R operates on units that are too large. Spelling exhibits both regularity and lexicality effects. These seemingly contradictory results are consistent with a two-route model of spelling in which each route is functioning with approximately 50% efficiency. Performance on paralinguistic rhyming tasks is poor and shows no recovery in comparison to younger developmental phonological dyslexics. Difficulties with higher-order sound segmentation, analysis, or organization may underly the lifelong literacy problems.
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, Egham, Surrey.
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Temple
D000381:Agraphia / Q000150:complications*; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged