Phonological processing in reading: data from alexia.

The reading of four subjects suffering from a phonological reading impairment as a result of a cerebral lesion was tested. A double dissociation observed in their results is strong evidence for the existence of two functionally independent kinds of phonological processing in reading--a graphemic and a phonetic one.     

Phonological reading skills acquisition by children with mental retardation

Twenty children with mental retardation (MR), age 7-12, completed a phonological reading skills program over approximately 10 weeks. As a result of the instruction, they were better able to sound out learned and transfer words compared to a control group matched on age, IQ, nonword reading, language comprehension, and phonemic awareness. Final sounding out was predicted by beginning reading skill in both groups, by phonemic awareness and articulation speed in the control group only, and by general language ability in the instruction group only. Neither IQ nor verbal working memory correlated significantly with final sounding out ability in either group. It is suggested that the instruction succeeded in compensating for weaknesses in phonemic awareness and speech articulation, but favored those who had better language skills.     

Phonological processing, not inhibitory control, differentiates ADHD and reading disability

OBJECTIVE: To test for the distinctiveness of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) and the independence of the cognitive domains, inhibition and phonological processing, which are proposed as central to ADHD and RD, respectively, using a classic double dissociation design. METHOD: A 2 (ADHD versus no ADHD) x 2 (RD versus no RD) model was used to examine the cognitive profile of 4 groups of children, aged 7 to 11 years. Two measures of inhibitory control and 3 phonological processing measures were used. RESULTS: The 2 RD groups (RD, ADHD + RD) were significantly impaired relative to the 2 non-RD groups (controls, ADHD) on all phonological processing measures. The 2 ADHD groups were significantly impaired on simple go-task responding relative to the non-ADHD groups and in inhibition. Contrary to predictions, an RD effect on inhibitory control was found on one inhibition measure. The comorbid group (ADHD + RD) generally exhibited the deficits of both single groups in an additive fashion. CONCLUSIONS: These findings question the role of inhibitory control as a unique cognitive marker for ADHD and suggest true comorbidity for children with both ADHD and RD.     

Temporary mirror writing and mirror reading as disinhibition phenomena? A case study

After removal of a left parietal meningioma a 74-year-old right-handed woman developed temporary mirror writing and mirror reading. Further analysis of the mirror phenomena came from tachistoscopic hemifield stimulation showing a right hemisphere superiority for the recognition of words presented in mirror fashion. These neuropsychological results are discussed in the context of common concepts. Finally the hypothesis of bihemispheral mirror-image engrams according to Orton will be suggested as a comprehensive explanation and supported by evidence from the literature.     

Carceral suicides--some exceptions and paradoxes

Beginning with Daniel's findings and recommendations regarding prison suicides, this commentary extends the discussion to include jail suicides. Some paradoxes and exceptions to general trends and recommendations are highlighted to advance the discussion on demographic correlates, screening methods, and interventions intended to prevent suicide in jails and prisons.     

Phonological alexia: three dissociations.

Three dissociations were observed in a case of alexia: a disturbance of reading, without comparable disturbance of oral expression, oral comprehension, writing, or spelling aloud; a disturbance of the phonological reading process, without disturbance of the non-phonological reading process; a disturbance located at the level of the phonological stage, without disturbance of the perceptual and expressive stages. This pattern of results has been called phonological alexia.     

Dyslexia as a Phonological Deficit: Evidence and Implications

In recent years, limitations of the discrepancy definition of specific reading difficulties have led researchers to propose that dyslexia is best described as a core phonological deficit. With studies of the normal development of reading as a backdrop, this paper reviews the phonological processing deficit hypothesis of dyslexia. The extant evidence suggests that phonological difficulties in dyslexia persist throughout development from the preschool years into adulthood, despite compensation of reading deficits. Moreover, individual differences in the behavioural manifestation of dyslexia are consistent with differences in the severity of underlying phonological difficulties. Implications for the early identification of dyslexia and for interventions to prevent reading failure are discussed.     

Placebos and paradoxes in psychiatric research: an ethics perspective.

The use of placebos in clinical trials, particularly in research with mentally ill people, has emerged as a subject of considerable controversy. We first outline ethical aspects of the primary scientific arguments for and against placebo use in research. Three examples of paradoxical aspects of the ethical use of placebos are discussed: involvement of relatively more vulnerable populations, use of apparently "less than standard" therapy, and the omission of information in placebo comparisons. In the current scientific and regulatory context, placebo use in psychiatric research may be necessary for scientific reasons, and when certain conditions are present, it may be justified on ethical grounds. Four key recommendations to facilitate the ethical use of placebos in research trials are presented. We conclude that placebo trials should be undertaken only after careful evaluation of alternative scientific strategies and, as with all human research, with great respect and genuine consideration for the individuals who choose to participate in these protocols.     

Phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia: cognitive mechanisms and neural substrates

To examine the validity of different theoretical assumptions about the neuropsychological mechanisms and lesion correlates of phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia, we studied written and spoken language performance in a large cohort of patients with focal damage to perisylvian cortical regions implicated in phonological processing. Despite considerable variation in accuracy for both words and non-words, the majority of participants demonstrated the increased lexicality effects in reading and spelling that are considered the hallmark features of phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia. Increased lexicality effects were also documented in spoken language tasks such as oral repetition, and patients performed poorly on a battery of phonological tests that did not involve an orthographic component. Furthermore, a composite measure of general phonological ability was strongly predictive of both reading and spelling accuracy, and we obtained evidence that the continuum of severity that characterized the written language disorder of our patients was attributable to an underlying continuum of phonological impairment. Although patients demonstrated qualitatively similar deficits across measures of written and spoken language processing, there were quantitative differences in levels of performance reflecting task difficulty effects. Spelling was more severely affected than reading by the reduction in phonological capacity and this differential vulnerability accounted for occasional disparities between patterns of impairment on the two written language tasks. Our findings suggest that phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia in patients with perisylvian lesions are manifestations of a central or modality-independent phonological deficit rather than the result of damage to cognitive components dedicated to reading or spelling. Our results also provide empirical support for shared-components models of written language processing, according to which the same central cognitive systems support both reading and spelling. Lesion-deficit correlations indicated that phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia may be produced by damage to a variety of perisylvian cortical regions, consistent with distributed network models of phonological processing.     

Phonological processes and phonemic paraphasias

Abstract

Aphasic phonological errors have received considerable attention in the literature. Linguistic analysis of phonological production errors has been largely based on the distinctive feature framework. Phonological process analysis has been demontrated to be an effective approach in child phonology. Process analysis focuses on the strategies which result in phonological error, rather than on the error itself. Few studies have attempted to apply process analysis to the phonological errors of adult aphasics. This paper applies process analysis to the phonemic paraphasias of posterior lesion aphasics from six published studies. Clinical and research implications are presented.     

Phonological development of Kuwaiti Arabic: Preliminary data

An overview of Kuwaiti Arabic is presented, with very preliminary data from two typically developing brothers (ages 2;4 and 5;2) and a 6-year-old with a severe sensorineural hearing impairment. The siblings show early mastery of many aspects of the complex Arabic phonological system, with universally expected later mastery of coronal fricatives and /r/. The 6-year-old shows patterns typical of children with hearing impairments, e.g. hypernasality, a prevalence of ‘visible’ segments, particularly labials, and simplified syllable structure. Her accurate use of /l/, /r/, and some gutturals, however, raise questions about the enhanced perceptibility and functionality of these segments in Arabic.     

Phonological development and prosodic units: Evidence from metathesis errors

There is general agreement in the literature that the ability to recognize that words are made up of “smaller phonological units” within the phonological hierarchy is a prerequisite for reading, however, there is still much debate as to which specific units are important. Many studies dealing with Japanese phonological development have been conducted, but most deal mainly with the mora unit, and few actually focus on other prosodic levels. In this paper, we will focus on the prosodic development of Japanese, with particular attention to the relationship of the different prosodic levels, namely, that of the foot, syllable and mora. The result of the reversal tasks seems to imply that the relationship between the foot and syllable units plays a role in the phonological processing of Japanese, implying the importance of focusing on phonological units other than the mora in order to correctly assess a child’s phonological processing ability.     

Phonological assessment and analysis tools for Tagalog: Preliminary development

Information and assessment tools concerning Tagalog phonological development are minimally available. The current study thus sets out to develop elicitation and analysis tools for Tagalog. A picture elicitation task was designed with a warm-up, screener and two extension lists, one with more complex and one with simpler words. A nonlinear phonological analysis form was adapted from English (Bernhardt & Stemberger, 2000) to capture key characteristics of Tagalog. The tools were piloted on a primarily Tagalog-speaking 4-year-old boy living in a Canadian-English-speaking environment. The data provided initial guidance for revision of the elicitation tool (available at phonodevelopment.sites.olt.ubc.ca). The analysis provides preliminary observations about possible expectations for primarily Tagalog-speaking 4-year-olds in English-speaking environments: Lack of mastery for tap/trill ‘r’, and minor mismatches for vowels, /l/, /h/ and word stress. Further research is required in order to develop the tool into a norm-referenced instrument for Tagalog in both monolingual and multilingual environments.     

Phonological agraphia: writing by the lexical-semantic route

Two writing routes (phonological and lexical) have been postulated. We studied four patients who had disruption of the phonological route (ie, inability to write pronounceable nonwords) but with a preserved lexical route. Results showed that the phonological route has two components: segmentation and phoneme-grapheme conversion. Disruption of either function may induce phonological agraphia. The preserved lexical route uses a whole-word mechanism and is strongly affected by semantic factors, such as imageability, emotionality, and grammatic class. Results of CT suggest that a portion of the supramarginal gyrus is the most likely anatomic substrate of phonological agraphia.     

Phonological therapy for word-finding difficulties: A re-evaluation

Background: Treatments for word-finding difficulties in aphasia using semantic techniques have been shown to be effective (e.g., Marshall, Pound, White-Thomson, & Pring, 1990). The evidence with regard to phonological treatment is more equivocal, however, with some studies reporting only short-term improvement in word retrieval (e.g., Howard, Patterson, Franklin, Orchard-Lisle, & Morton, 1985a) and other studies reporting lasting effects (e.g., Miceli, Amitrano, Capasso, & Caramazza, 1996). There is also little in the literature on the use of orthographic cues in treatment (Howard & Harding, 1998). Additionally, whereas several studies have reported the results of using cues in facilitation of word-finding difficulties (e.g., Patterson, Purrell, & Morton, 1983), none so far has attempted to relate response to facilitation and response to treatment using similar techniques in the same individuals. Aims: This study set out to investigate whether the use of phonological and orthographic cues in the treatment of word-finding difficulties could produce lasting improvements in word retrieval. The response of the participants to phonological and orthographic cues in a facilitation study was also related to their response to treatment using similar cues. Methods & Procedures: The study used a case series design. The participants were eight people with acquired aphasia who were all at least 1 year post-onset, had a single left CVA, and had word-finding difficulties as a significant aspect of their aphasia. Detailed assessment of each participant was carried out to identify the nature of their word-finding difficulties and this was related to response to treatment. Outcomes & Results: Results are given for the eight participants, seven of whom benefited overall from treatment. Both phonological and orthographic cues were effective in improving word retrieval. For the group as a whole there was a significant correlation between the overall outcome of facilitation and response to treatment.