Matching Letters

SKILL: Reading

DIFFICULTY: 1/5

LEVELS: 33, based on number of choices, shape, and letter case

BRIEF RATIONALE: This treatment establishes the foundation of letter recognition for pre-reading skills.

In Matching Letters, you will see a letter and select the matching letter from a set of choices. The treatment auto-adjusts in difficulty based on performance.

HINT: A hint button is available in the lower-left corner of the screen to provide audio of the letter name. Using the hint will mark the item as incorrect (since it was not answered using only the written stimulus), but it may help you associate the letter name with the written letter.

FOR THE CLINICIAN:

Matching Letters is a “bottom-up” treatment for pure alexia designed to improve letter identification. Levels progress to cross-case matching, which may promote generalization to untrained letters, as demonstrated by Arguin and Bub (1994).

A tactile-kinesthetic approach can be incorporated by having the patient trace the target letter on the palm of their hand. The patient can also be encouraged to name each target letter aloud to support letter-by-letter reading (i.e., deciphering a word by identifying the individual letters aloud).

Selected References:

1. Arguin, M., & Bub, D. N. (1994). Pure alexia: Attempted rehabilitation and its implications for

   interpretation of the deficit. Brain and Language, 47, 233–268.

2. Francis, D. R., Riddoch, M. J., and Humphreys, G. W. (2001). Treating agnostic alexia complicated by additional impairments. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 11, 113-145.
3. Kiran, S. (2006). Pure Alexia: Causes, characteristics, and treatment. Perspectives on Neurophysiology and Neurogenic Speech and Language Disorders, 16(1), 16–21.

4. Starrfelt, R., Ólafsdóttir, R. R., & Arendt, I.-M. (2013). Rehabilitation of pure alexia: A Review. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 23(5), 755–779.