Phonological dysgraphia in bilingual aphasia: evidence from a case study of Greek and English
Journal
Aphasiology
Date Issued
2013
Author(s)
DOI
10.1080/02687038.2012.720963
Abstract
Background: Acquired phonological dysgraphia refers to impaired spelling of nonwords
with preserved spelling of familiar words as well as effects of grammatical class on
word spelling with nouns spelled better than verbs. Despite the reports of acquired
phonological dysgraphia in different languages, no study has investigated acquired
phonological dysgraphia in a bilingual speaker.
Aims: Our aim is to test the hypothesis that patterns of spelling impairment should
be similar in each language for AA who is a highly proficient bilingual Greek-English
speaker with phonological dysgraphia in each language.
Methods & Procedures: Phonological dysgraphia was assessed using tasks of spelling to
dictation with familiar words, nonwords and verbs and nouns in each language.
Outcomes & Results: AA was impaired on tasks that require the knowledge of phoneme
to grapheme correspondences in both Greek and English resulting in impaired nonword
spelling. In English, nouns were spelled better than verbs; however, the reverse pattern
was seen in Greek, with verbs spelled better than nouns.
Conclusions: Differential effects of grammatical class on spelling across languages in bilingual
phonological dysgraphia reveal that the linguistic constraints of each language have
an impact on spelling via a lexical–semantic spelling pathway.
with preserved spelling of familiar words as well as effects of grammatical class on
word spelling with nouns spelled better than verbs. Despite the reports of acquired
phonological dysgraphia in different languages, no study has investigated acquired
phonological dysgraphia in a bilingual speaker.
Aims: Our aim is to test the hypothesis that patterns of spelling impairment should
be similar in each language for AA who is a highly proficient bilingual Greek-English
speaker with phonological dysgraphia in each language.
Methods & Procedures: Phonological dysgraphia was assessed using tasks of spelling to
dictation with familiar words, nonwords and verbs and nouns in each language.
Outcomes & Results: AA was impaired on tasks that require the knowledge of phoneme
to grapheme correspondences in both Greek and English resulting in impaired nonword
spelling. In English, nouns were spelled better than verbs; however, the reverse pattern
was seen in Greek, with verbs spelled better than nouns.
Conclusions: Differential effects of grammatical class on spelling across languages in bilingual
phonological dysgraphia reveal that the linguistic constraints of each language have
an impact on spelling via a lexical–semantic spelling pathway.