Dyslexia

Question 0

What is pure alexia?

Answer 0

Alexia without agraphia

Deficit in visual processing of letters

Poor/ slow reading
Difficulty recognising printed letters; impairment in letter naming and cross case letter matching

Intact spelling

Question 1

What are the types of acquired dyslexia?

Answer 1

1) peripheral dyslexias: pure alexia (letter by letter reading)
2) central dyslexias: surface dyslexia and phonological dyslexia

Question 2

What is letter by letter reading?

Answer 2

Identify individual letters in words and read using intact spelling system

Question 3

What errors can occur in letter by letter reading?

Answer 3

Letter identification errors: spade s h a d e shade

Completion errors: simile s i m i l similar

Question 4

What does the triangle model assume about pure alexia?

Answer 4

Damage to orthographic processing mechanism

Therefore will affect visual processing generally

Question 5

What does the primary system hypothesis say about pure alexia?

Answer 5

Damage to visual processing mechanism generally

Pure alexia has been used to show that reading is a separate system as some people with pure alexia perform well on other visual tasks

But reading is visually complex therefore tasks were not matched and in fact reading may be the first indication of a mild visual processing problem

Does not prove it is not a general visual processing problem

Question 6

What is phonological dyslexia?

Answer 6

Damage to sublexical route

Can read: familiar words regardless of regularity
Cannot read: new and non words
Errors: lexicalisation

Question 7

What is surface dyslexia?

Answer 7

Damage to lexical route

Can read: regular words regardless of familiarity
Cannot read: irregular words
Errors: regularisation