Developmental dyslexia in a regular orthography: A single case study

Abstract

This study of an adult case examined in detail with eye movement measures the reading speed problem which is characteristic for developmental dyslexia in regular orthographies. A dramatic length effect was found for low frequency words and for pseudowords, but not for high frequency words. However, even for high frequency words it was found that reading times were substantially prolonged although number of fixations did not differ. A neurocognitive assessment revealed no visual deficits (parallel processing, precedence detection, coherent motion detection) but speed impairments for certain verbal and phonological processes. We propose that the reading difficulties are phonological in nature, but these difficulties become manifest as inefficiency and not as inability.

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Thomas, who made possible this study by sharing his difficulties with us and enduring repeated assessments over the course of a year. Stefan Hawelka and Martin Kronbichler provided technical assistance. This research was supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (Grant No. P14494-SPR).

Notes

Note. ^a n = 10.