Rehabilitation of spelling along the sub-word-level routine

Abstract

Contemporary psycholinguistic models of writing have been verified on the basis of neuropsychological observations of patients suffering from acquired dysgraphia. The present paper describes the rehabilitation of dysgraphia along the subword-level route in Italian dysgraphic patients. Particular emphasis is given to the treatment of the unit that allows the phonological analysis of the auditory string to be written. The treatment procedure was tested on 2 male patients, aged 33 and 48 years, suffering from severe dysgraphia. After treatment, the spelling ability of the 2 Ss was restored to practically normal levels on most subsets of items. Both patients were also able to apply the restored skills to spontaneous writing and to written naming tasks. Results are discussed in relation to the contemporary writing models and the principles of cognitive neurorehabilitation