Remediation of developmental dyslexia: Tackling a basic memory deficit

Abstract

Remediation studies of developmental dyslexia are extremely rare. We present a single case study of an 8-year-old German developmental dyslexic boy K.H. who is hypothesized to suffer from a severe memory problem, impeding the development of normal reading functions. The memory problem especially affects the storage and access to letter–sound associations. As a consequence, the boy was initially unable to accurately and quickly name most of the 26 letters of the alphabet. A multiple-baseline across-material design with a high-frequency errorless learning procedure was set up to improve letter–name associations. The intervention improved K.H.'s letter reading and even his word reading. We discuss the role of memory deficits in reading acquisition in the context of three different theoretical models. We show how such theoretical considerations can successfully guide remediation programmes.

Keywords:

• Developmental dyslexia
• Remediation
• Memory deficit

We thank K.H. for participating in this study and for being collaborative throughout many tedious letter- and word-reading sessions. Thanks also to K.H.'s parents for giving us the opportunity to run this study. We are especially grateful to Margit Mohr for her initial assessment, for drawing our attention to the dyslexic child, and for her continuous support during the extended period of data collection.

Notes

¹Symbols between two forward slashes (e.g., /v/) refer to the phonetic notation of spoken-language sounds according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).