In 1901, James Hinshelwood, a Scottish ophthalmologist and eye surgeon, published a study in which he used the term word blindness. The study presented information about a number of children who had been referred to Hinshelwood because they couldn’t read. Hinshelwood posited that there was a region in the brain responsible for reading difficulty and that this area was probably damaged. “By the term congenital word blindness, we mean a congenital defect occurring in children with otherwise normal and undamaged brains characterised by a difficulty in leaning to read . and where the attempts to reach the child by the ordinary methods have completely failed” (Hinshelwood, 1917).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of the reading “syndrome” Hinshelwood described the children’s letter reversals and spelling problems, and reading comprehension problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hinshelwood also introduced the term strephosymbolia or “twisted symbols” to refer to reading difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hinshelwood, J. (1895). Word blindness and visual memory. Lancet<\/em>, 2, 1564-1570.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1896). The visual memory for words and figures. British Medical Journal, 2, 1543-1544.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1898). A case of ‘word’ without ‘letter’ blindness. Lancet<\/em>, 1, 422-425.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1899). Letters without word blindness. Lancet<\/em>, 1, 83-86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1900) Letter-, word- and mind-blindness<\/em>. London: H. K. Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood,, J. (1900). Congenital word-blindness. Lancet<\/em>, 1, 1506-1508.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1902). Congenital word-blindness, with reports of two cases. Ophthalmic Review<\/em>, 21, 91-99.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1904). A case of word-blindness, with right homonymous hemianopsia. British Medical Journal<\/em>. 2, 1304-1397<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J., (1907) Four cases of congenital word-blindness occurring in the same family, British Medical Journal<\/em>, 1907, 2, 1229-1232.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1911). Two cases of hereditary congenital word-blindness. British Medical Journal<\/em>, 1, 608-609.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1912). The treatment of word-blindness, acquired and congenital. British Medical Journal<\/em>, 2, 1033-1035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hinshelwood, J. (1917). Congenital word blindness<\/em>. London: H. K. Lewis & Co.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWritings about James Hinshelwood<\/h3>\n\n\n\n