Training Program for Phonetic Reading of Individual Kanji Letters using Information Processing of Kanji Compound Words

Abstract

In Japan, the “key word method” is often used to improve kana (phonemic characters) processing in aphasic patients who exhibit difficulty in processing kana but demonstrate the ability to process kanji (ideographic symbols). In this study, we employed a training program for phonetic reading of individual kanji letters using the key word method. The patient was a 46-year-old right-handed university professor. Fifteen months after onset of cerebral infarction, he was referred to our hospital and diagnosed with mild amnesic aphasia with severe disturbance in reading individual kanji letters phonetically despite well preserved abilities in oral reading of kanji compound words which represent concrete meanings. We started him on a training program using the key word method for reading individual kanji phonetically. In the program, he was required to form an association between a single kanji letter and a kanji compound word with the same sound in the first syllable which he could easily understand in meaning and read aloud. After five days of training, severity of his disturbance in phonetic reading of kanji letters markedly decreased. Our findings suggest that the access route to phonetic information which individual kanji letters represent is facilitated by information processing of kanji compound words, which include not only phonetic information but also semantic information. Moreover, the key word method is considered effective in the treatment of aphasic patients who have difficulty processing letters phonetically but demonstrate preserved abilities for processing words visual-semantically, not only with respect to training for kana reading but also training for reading kanji phonetically. © 1999, The Japan Society of Logopedics and Phoniatrics. All rights reserved.