A longitudinal case study of developmental phonological dyslexia

Abstract

We present a four-year follow-up study of JM, a developmental phonological dyslexic previously described by Snowling, Stackhouse, and Rack (1986). JM has made some progress in reading and spelling although these skills remain severely impaired. His reading and spelling skills are consistent with arrest in the logographic phase of literacy development as described by Frith (1985); reading errors are primarily visual, he is severely impaired in reading non-words, and his spelling errors are predominantly dysphonetic. In contrast to these severe decoding problems, his semantic and syntactic skills are excellent, and reading comprehension is consistently better than accuracy. He shows a range of deficits in phonological skills. He has severe impairment of output phonology, as evidenced by difficulties in repeating words and nonwords and systematic mispronunciations in his spontaneous speech. Naming skills are impaired and he has severely impaired verbal short-term memory skills. It is argued that JM's reading and spelling problems may plausibly be linked to his underlying phonological problems, particularly at the level of output phonology.