The Impact of Deep Dysgraphia on Graphemic Buffer Disorders

Abstract

This article describes an investigation into the residual writing skills of a severely dysgraphic patient (DA). We found that they were powerfully influenced by a number of lexical variables (lexicality, frequency, imageability, length and geminates). His error pattern was characterized by semantic, lexical, substitution, deletion errors and fragment responses that preserved the first letter. Thus, DA's written spelling was characterized by both deep dysgraphic and graphemic output buffer effects. It is proposed that this pattern of performance represents a new “putative functional syndrome.”

Acknowledgments

David Glasspool's work on the paper was supported by a grant from the McDonnell Foundation. This research was supported by the MRC Co-operative Grant at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. We are grateful to Professor M.N. Rossor for referring this patient to us.