Can treatment for pure alexia improve letter-by-letter reading speed without sacrificing accuracy?

An experimental treatment study designed to improve both the accuracy and t he speed of reading was administered to a patient with pure alexia and impa ired letter naming. The study focused on the use of letter-by-letter readin g. A two-stage approach was employed. The first stage implemented a tactile -kinesthetic strategy to improve accuracy. The second stage concentrated on speed. At the end of the treatment, patient DL was reading both trained an d untrained words more accurately and with considerably greater speed than prior to treatment. Accuracy and speed of reading at the sentence level imp roved as well, (C) 1999 Academic Press.