Types of acquired dyslexia in Spanish-speaking patients with aphasia

Abstract

The different types of acquired dyslexia described by cognitive neuropsychology have been observed in single-case and case series studies in different languages. However, no multipatient study of Spanish-speaking individuals has been reported that uses the same criteria and tasks to identify each participant’s acquired dyslexia pattern. In this study, we analyzed participants’ performance in three tasks (oral reading of words and nonwords, visual lexical decision with pseudohomophones, and written homophone comprehension) among 16 Spanish-speaking patients with aphasia. We identified 9 patients with acquired phonological dyslexia, 3 with acquired surface dyslexia, and 4 with acquired mixed dyslexia. The results of this research provide more information about the relative frequency of each type of acquired dyslexia in Spanish, which could be used to help design more appropriate treatments for rehabilitation. Identifying which processes have been impaired and which have been preserved will allow professionals to plan more specific interventions.