From "logographic" to normal reading: the case of a deaf beginning reader.
Visual word recognition of a profoundly deaf girl (AH) with developmental reading disorders was explored using an experimental technique that measures performance as a function of eye fixation within a word. AH's fixation-dependent word recognition profile revealed that she was inferring the identity of words using a "logographic" reading strategy (i. e., using salient visual features). Following this observation a special training program that enhances the understanding of grapheme-phoneme relations was applied. After few months of training, AH's reading skills improved, while her fixation-dependent performance changed to become like that of normal readers. We discuss the impact of our technique for the early diagnosis of reading impairments.
Aghababian
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Centre de Recherche PsyCLE, Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France.mla@medecine.univ-mrs.fr
Nazir
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Lançon
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Tardy
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D002675:Child, Preschool; D003638:Deafness; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology