Digit dyslexia: A Category-specific disorder in development dyscalculia

Abstract

Abstract A case study of developmental dyscalculia is presented in which there is impairment of number processing. When reading and writing arabic numbers the syntactic component of the number is processed accurately but lexical processing results in incorrect digit selection. When reading arabic numbers the allocation of lexical items into syntactic frames is particularly poor for digits in the units position. Lexical allocation is unaffected by stimulus length. Despite poor short term memory, word reading is not impaired except for the reading of numeral words for which there is a category specific deficit. Reading errors to numeral words are more frequent than to arabic numbers but the nature of the errors is comparable. This reading deficit coexists with good phonological reading skills. The results are discussed in relation to models derived from studies of the acquired dyscalculias.