"Word-Blindness" in School Children

The material included in this preliminary report has come from several sources but was assembled chiefly during an experimental clinic held by members of the Iowa State Psychopathic Hospital Staff in Greene County, Iowa, in January, 1925. Among those children who were reported to the clinic by their teachers as "dull, subnormal, or failing or retarded in school work" was a fairly high proportion whose chief difficulty was in learning to read. Two of these would fit Hinshelwood's criteria of true "congenital word-blindness," and one of these two cases (M. P.) also gave bizarre written productions. Because of his striking disability, M. P. was admitted to the State Psychopathic Hospital, and his case was there studied more thoroughly than was possible in the clinic. The results of this study are here reported in full. Observations suggesting an explanation of one of the factors in this case are recorded from other