ACQUIRED ORAL READING VOCABULARY FOLLOWING THE ONSET OF AMNESIA IN CHILDHOOD

While the neuropsychological literature includes few cases of child-on set amnesia, 2 previous case studies suggest that these patients may b e able to learn new information of a semantic or academic nature. The previous studies were, in large part, based on neuropsychological test ing performed during adulthood and a retrospective review of academic achievement test scores during childhood. We present patient A.C., who acquired severe anterograde amnesia at age 10 years but demonstrated average levels of performance on tests of reading, spelling and arithm etic upon examination at age 19 years. Episodic and semantic memory te st scores were severely impaired, but near normal performances were fo und on tests of implicit and procedural memory. In a prospective study , A.C. learned to read new irregular and pseudowords and retained this learning over a 1-month period, similar to the performance of age-mat ched controls. This demonstration of postmorbid, acquired oral reading vocabulary supports a previous conclusion that oral reading can progr ess in childhood following the onset of severe anterograde amnesia. Th e data also suggest that this new learning probably reflects nondeclar ative memory processes rather than preservation of semantic memory, as was proposed in an earlier case study.