Author: Brett McCardel, MS, CCC-SLP
When we think about aphasia, we often immediately think about speech skills. But aphasia affects all of the language modalities, including reading. When someone has difficulties with reading following a stroke or other neurological event, this is referred to as alexia.
Alexia is an acquired impairment of reading. This is different from dyslexia, which is a developmental reading disorder. Older research articles talking about alexia may use the two terms interchangeably, but there has been a big emphasis in recent years of making sure that these terms are used in their appropriate contexts. Whereas a person with dyslexia will have difficulty developing the appropriate mental representations for sounds, letters, and words, a person with alexia will typically have these representations already created and stored, but access to them will be lost.
A variety of reading disorders can be expressed after brain damage, with very few people with the diagnosis of โalexiaโ looking exactly alike. The study of these different forms of reading disorders has allowed for the delineation of distinct cognitive components of reading. This in turn has contributed to the development of psycholinguistic models that conceptualize the reading system as a set of interacting yet discrete cognitive mechanisms. Knowing the exact breakdown of our patientโs difficulties is pivotal in treatment planning.
Thankfully, there are a variety of effective, evidence-based treatment approaches and assistive technology to help manage alexia. Whether you want to get back to reading the New York Times or your favorite Harry Potter book, a Speech-Language Pathologist can help you get back to enjoying reading!
Living in the Seattle, WA area and looking for client-centered aphasia and alexia treatment? Click here to learn more about the services we provide, or contact us at (206) 395-4259 / Brett@archwaysrehab.com