Disorders of spelling
Marcel Kinsbourne, E. K. Warrington · Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry · 1964
The writing process may be regarded as in the first instance compounded of spelling (requiring correct cbice and sequence of letters) and of script (demanding correct formation of letters).Impairment in each activity may be studied separately and their respective contributions towards a clinically apparent writing disorder assessed.Spelling, with which we are here concerned' can be studied in isolation from script if performed orally.A spelling disorder may be a feature of central or expressive aphasia.J the writing of a series of aphasic patients, Weienburg and McBride (1935) found errors of choice of letter to be prominent.Gerstmann (1924) reRorted a disorder of writing in association with fingei agnosia.Many subsequent case reports of the Gerstmann syndrome present examples of mis-spelling, among which errors of order of letters are prominent.Clinical observations thus suggest that patients with finger agnosia tend to make spelling errors involving letter order, while aphasics characteristically make errors of letter choice.The present study was designed to test this possibility in a formal manner. CLINICAL STUDYThe methods of testing were the following: FINGER AGNOSIA Tests of finger differentiation and order (Kinsbourme and Warrington, 1962) were used.These test for the same defect as Gerstmann's (1924) tests for finger agnosia but do not require the patients to know the names of the fingers.