APA Dictionary of Psychology

a form of acquired dyslexia in which a person is overly reliant on spelling-to-sound correspondence and therefore has difficulty reading irregularly spelled words. Surface dyslexia manifested as a form of developmental dyslexia has also been described. See also deep dyslexia. [first described in 1973 by British neuropsychologists John C. Marshall (1939–2007) and Freda Newcombe (1925–2001)]