APA Dictionary of Psychology

a type of dyslexia that is marked by difficulty in recognizing whole words and thus by an overreliance on sounding out words each time they are encountered. It is supposedly due to deficits in visual memory and visual discrimination. There is, however, no reliable empirical evidence for this form of dyslexia. See also dysphonetic dyslexia. [proposed in 1973 by U.S. psychologist Elena Boder (1907–1995)]