Case Study into the Effect of Intensive Mass Training on Chronic Pure Alexia

Inge Linda Wilms

doi:10.4172/2376-0281.1000162

Abstract

Background: Pure alexia is often regarded as a minor deficit when compared to other effects of brain injury. However, the loss of the ability to read is to many a true loss of quality of life. Objective: The study is an explorative case study investigating the effects of intensive reading training in a patient with acquired pure alexia disorder. The training targeted the various stages of the basic reading process. Methods: A patient diagnosed with pure alexia trained for 2 hours a day for 15 days. The training consisted of exposure to word, non-words, sentences and text with varying complexity in format as well content. The training material was developed to accommodate intensive and adaptive training directed at regaining fundamental reading abilities without the use of compensatory techniques. Results: The patient improved on reading speed for short words, short sentences and text. The patients improved significantly in letter reading speed. There was no significant change in the performance on 3, 5 or 7 letter words before and after training. Conclusion: The case is a prototype study and indicative that intensive may improve reading speed but has no effect on the fundamental problem of word length effect in alexia.

Highlights

In terms of rehabilitation efforts, pure alexia has been very resistant to training and the ability to read fluently again is rarely restored in full
This study is an exploratory case study into the effect of highly intensive and adaptive training for letter- and word-reading in a patient diagnosed with pure alexia
Pure alexia Pure alexia is a disorder arising from brain injury that affects the reading ability of the patient [8]

Summary

Introduction

In terms of rehabilitation efforts, pure alexia has been very resistant to training and the ability to read fluently again is rarely restored in full. This study is an exploratory case study into the effect of highly intensive and adaptive training for letter- and word-reading in a patient diagnosed with pure alexia. CILT training is a combination of targeted, intensive, personal goal-oriented training in which the patient is gently coerced into using the affected cognitive function to solve more and more challenging tasks [5,6]. It is the result of damage to the functional processing of letters [10], a very particular sort of visual stimuli invented by humans themselves to represent the spoken word. Reading may rely on other processes of identification of visual stimuli, letter and word reading is definitely an ability that humans have to acquire through intensive training

Results

Discussion

Conclusion