Acquired dysgraphia

Question 1

What modalities could be affected by dysgraphia?

Answer 1

• hand writing
• typing
• oral spelling

Question 2

What is the Rapsack and Beeson model of writing (2000)?

Answer 2

Linguistic
- semantic system
- orthographic output lexicon
- graphemic output buffer
Motor
- allographic realisation
- graphemic motor planning

Question 3

What is the Patterson and Shewell model of writing (1987)?

Answer 3

• semantic system
• orthographic output lexicon
• graphemic output buffer

Question 4

What are the three routes of spelling single words?

Answer 4

• lexical semantic route
• sublexical route
• direct lexical route

Question 5

What is the lexical-semantic route?

Answer 5

• semantic system
• orthographic output lexicon
• graphemic output buffer

Question 6

Describe the semantic system

Answer 6

• semantic conceptual system (central system used in comp and retreival)
• sucessful semantic activation = activation of corresponding representation in orthographic output lexicon

Question 7

What writing impairments may be seen if semantic system damaged?

Answer 7

• errors in spontaneous writing
• errors in writing to dictation
• limited written output
• semantic errors (and no responses)
• imagebility effect

Question 8

Describe the OOL

Answer 8

• ordered store of spellings of known and actively used orthographic forms
• Structured by cohorts based on similarity of form
• frequency is imp variable in accessibility of info

Question 9

What writing impairments might be seen with OOL damage?

Answer 9

• dissociation between modalities
• representations tend to be degraded rather than completely lost

Question 10

Describe the graphemic output buffer

Answer 10

• implicit/unconscious, short-term, limited capacity store
• intermediate products of encoding are held until the specification of word/clause is complete
• abstract, info about case not specified

Question 11

What impairments may result from damage to graphemic output buffer?

Answer 11

• length effects
• spelling errors
• errors across tasks for both words and non-words
• no frequency or imagebility effect

Question 12

Describe the sublexical route of writing

Answer 12

• phonological-graphemic conversion
• ‘sounding out’/ segmenting the word into phonemes & translating phonemes into graphemes
• used for non-words and unfamiliar words (allows acquisition of new spellings if new words, writing non-words to dictation)

Question 13

What error might be observed if someone is using the sublexical route?

Answer 13

regularisation of irregular spelling

Question 14

Why might transcoding routes be imp in rehab?

Answer 14

• If an individual has difficulty retrieving information in one modality, if G-P rules are present or ‘stimulable’, could teach an autonomous phonemic cueing strategy
• Example: An individual is unable to retrieve spoken word ‘soap’, but can write it. If know that letter ‘s’ = sound /s/ then might be able to self-generate initial phonemic cue to trigger spoken naming

Question 15

Describe the direct lexical route

Answer 15

• retrieval of word in phonological output lexicon directly activates word within OOL
• may be able to write a word dictated to them via a lexical route bypassing the semantic system

Question 16

What will using the direct lexical route result in?

Answer 16

can write irregular words to dictation without knowing meaning of word

Question 17

What are the stages of post-lexical processing?

Answer 17

• allographic realisation
• graphemic motor programming

Question 18

What is a key feature of post-lexical processing?

Answer 18

• modality specific motor codes (written, oral, typing)
• therefore can spell orally, through skilled finger movement, or pressing keys

Question 19

How can dysgraphias be divided?

Answer 19

• Rapsack and Beeson (2000) model
  Linguistic section = central dysgraphias
  Motor section = peripheral dysgraphias

Question 20

Define central agraphia

Answer 20

• disruption from semantic level to abstract orthographic representation in OOL, to output buffer
• no dissociation between modalities

Question 21

Define peripheral agraphias

Answer 21

• disruptions post-buffer
• observe dissociations between different modes of spelling output

Question 22

What are the different central agraphias?

Answer 22

• phonological
• surface
• deep
  Often show a mixed pattern of impairment - pure subtypes rare

Question 23

Describe deep dysgraphia

Answer 23

• impaired semantic-OOL mapping
• unable to use P-G rules, so spelling not constrained by phonological system

Question 24

What writing impairments may be seen with deep dysgraphia?

Answer 24

• semantic errors (defining feature)
• imeagability effect
• content words better than function
• can’t write non-words
• no regularity effect

Question 25

Describe phonological dysgraphia

Answer 25

- write via a lexical route - impairment to sub-lexical route

Question 26

What writing impairments may be seen with phonological dysgraphia?

Answer 26

- no regularity effect - poor non-word writing - good writing of real words with some spelling errors - lexical errors (tend to be morphological or structurally similar) - imageability effect may be present

Question 27

Describe surface dysgraphia

Answer 27

- impaired semantic-OOL mapping - spelling via P-G rules is preserved

Question 28

What writing impairments may be seen with surface dysgraphia

Answer 28

- can write non-words - better writing regular and non-words than irregular - regularisation of irregular words or partial knowledge (e.g. sward)

Question 29

What tasks might be done to test spelling?

Answer 29

- Writing letters - Written picture naming - Writing to dictation - Written picture description - Written copying - Typing/keyboard - Oral spelling - Assembling letter tiles

Question 30

What are some imp things to consider when assessing spelling?

Answer 30

- may be using their non-dominant hand - may have poor posture/positioning for writing - may have additional visual or perceptual deficits - pre-morbid spelling ability

Question 31

Describe peripheral agraphias

Answer 31

- dissociations between different modes of spelling output - indicates the abstract orthographic representation is intact, but cannot be realised in some modalities

Question 32

What are the variants of peripheral agraphia?

Answer 32

- fluent - impaired allographic realisation - apraxic - impaired graphic motor programming

Question 33

What are the features of fluent agraphia?

Answer 33

- normal letter strokes - movement plans for letters intact - words contain ommissions, substitutions, etc - difficulty generating correct letter plan from abstract representation - may confuse upper and lower case - may detect own letters and spell correctly orally

Question 34

What are the features of apraxic agraphia?

Answer 34

- poorly formed letters - disrupted movement plans for letters (may not resemble letter, incorrect, incomplete, fuse together)