Adult Dyslexia and Word Puzzles: Results of a Pilot Project

Background

The type of dyslexia that concerns us here is known generally as phonological dyslexia. Its main symptomatology includes difficulties in breaking words down into syllables and into smaller sound units or phonemes. For example, if one says a word out loud to a child with weak phonemic skills, the child can hear and repeat the word correctly but will have trouble segmenting it into the different sounds that constitute it. The child will typically have problems matching phonemes with their written symbols (graphemes). Diagnoses have shown that such children, when shown a bunch of letters in a row, can usually name each of them, albeit with difficulty—but cannot put them together phonemically (in most cases). Some believe that slow naming speed is behind difficulties with phonological processing in reading.