The goal of this dissertation was to find converging evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging analyses of the mechanisms of orthographic integration with general language processes. By examining orthography effects, covert influences of orthography on non-written tasks, in participants with aphasia, we attempt to elucidate the nature of…

Purpose: The evaluation of spelling performance in aphasia reveals deficits in written language and can facilitate the design of targeted writing treatments. Nevertheless, manual scoring of spelling performance is time-consuming, laborious, and error prone. We propose a novel method based on the use of distance metrics to automatically score…

Background: Intervention studies aimed to improve the written production of single words by persons with aphasia have yielded promising results and there is growing interest in interventions targeting text writing. The development of technical writing aids offers opportunities for persons with aphasia, and studies have shown that using them can…

Introduction: Spelling difficulty is a common symptom of aphasia and can entail editing difficulties. Previous research has shown that extensive editing is related to a lower production rate in text writing for persons with aphasia, yet editing difficulty is not commonly examined. It is not known if editing difficulty is related to reading and…

Background: Improving email writing in people with aphasia could enhance their ability to communicate, promote interaction and reduce isolation. Spelling therapies have been effective in improving single-word writing. However, there has been limited evidence on how to achieve changes to everyday writing tasks such as email writing in people with…

Purpose: Treatment studies have documented the therapeutic and functional value of lexical writing treatment for individuals with severe aphasia. The purpose of this study was to determine whether such retraining could be accomplished using the typing feature of a cellular telephone, with the ultimate goal of using text messaging for…

Connectionist theories of language propose that written language deficits arise as a result of damage to semantic and phonological systems that also support spoken language production and comprehension, a view referred to as the "primary systems" hypothesis. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the primary systems account in a mixed…

This study reports on the pattern of performance on spoken and written naming, spelling to dictation, and oral reading of single verbs and nouns in a bilingual speaker with aphasia in two first languages that differ in morphological complexity, orthographic transparency, and script: Greek (L1a) and English (L1b). The results reveal no verb/noun…

Purpose: Damage to left perisylvian cortex often results in impaired phonological processing abilities with written language profiles consistent with phonological alexia and phonological agraphia. The purpose of this article was to examine a behavioral treatment sequence for such individuals intended to strengthen phonological processing and links…

This study evaluates spelling errors in the three subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA): agrammatic (PPA-G), logopenic (PPA-L), and semantic (PPA-S). Forty-one PPA patients and 36 age-matched healthy controls were administered a test of spelling. The total number of errors and types of errors in spelling to dictation of regular words,…

Patients with semantic dementia show a specific pattern of impairment on both verbal and non-verbal "pre-semantic" tasks, e.g., reading aloud, past tense generation, spelling to dictation, lexical decision, object decision, colour decision and delayed picture copying. All seven tasks are characterised by poorer performance for items that are…

At 11 years of age, English students in secondary schools are expected to make no more than five spelling errors per 100 words and write at a speed of 25 words per minute in order to cope with the curriculum. This research found that at least one third of the Year 7 cohorts (ages 11-12) in three typical suburban secondary schools were unable to…

Writing treatment that involved repeated copying and recall of target words was implemented with 8 individuals with severe aphasia in order to discern the best candidates for the treatment. Four of the 8 participants had strong positive responses to the copy and recall treatment (CART), relearning spellings for 15 targeted words during 10 to 12…

Separate experiments investigated parietal lobe malfunction; developmental v acquired dyslexia; whole-word, syllabic, and alphabetical reading ability; phonological recoding; and spelling. Reading processes and memory of normal and aphasic children were compared. (CP)

This book provides a comprehensive review of the major areas of applied linguistics with original contributions by fourteen scholars. The following chapters are included: (1) "What is Applied Linguistics?" by H. Douglas Brown; (2) "Language Development," by Lois Bloom; (3) "First Language Teaching," by Jean Malmstrom (discusses the teaching of…