How do you solve a problem like phonological dyslexia? A new approach to an old issue.

Following brain injury, patients can present with various kinds of acquired dyslexia, Dr Jeremy Tree will lead a research seminar discussing recent research.

Dr Jeremy Tree             

Host: I. Kellar

Location: room 1.33-1.34, Psychology         

Following brain injury, patients can present with various kinds of acquired dyslexia - and these can be particularly specific to certain kinds of letter strings. Back in the late 1970's patients were first reported who seemed to do very badly at reading nonwords (novel words) despite being very able to read familiar words of various kinds; a condition dubbed 'Phonological dyslexia' (Beauvois & Derouesne, 1979). But an issue has always remained. How does one determine nonword reading accuracy, which there may well be no pre-accepted response? The implications of this issue have dogged the interpretation of data that interrogates current model/theories of reading over the years - in some cases enabling the convenient ignoring of contrary cases (e.g., Tree & Kay, 2008). In this talk, I explain the historical approaches to dealing with this challenge and their weaknesses - and then present a case series of dementia patients tested on nonword reading that provides a new (database driven) approach. I argue that phonological dyslexia is perhaps best characterised on a continuum of severity, rather than the more binary approach of the past.