Morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognition and spelling in Dutch

This study investigated the relations of three aspects of morphological awareness to word recognition and spelling skills of Dutch speaking children. Tasks of inflectional and derivational morphology and lexical compounding, as well as measures of phonological awareness, vocabulary and mathematics were administered to 104 first graders (mean age 6 years, 11 months) and 112 sixth graders (mean age 12 years, 1 month). For the first grade children, awareness of noun morphology uniquely contributed to word reading, and none of the morphological tasks were uniquely associated with spelling. In grade 6, derivational morphology contributed both to reading and spelling achievement, whereas awareness of verb inflection uniquely explained spelling only. Lexical compounding did not uniquely contribute to literacy skills in either grade. These findings suggest that awareness of both inflectional and derivational morphology may be independently useful for learning to read and spell Dutch.     

An investigation into the relation between word recognition skills,reading comprehension and spelling skills in the first two years of primary school

During the past five years a comprehensive research project called ‘The prevention of reading difficulties’ has been designed and carried out in the Netherlands. This project included a longitudinal study to investigate the development of various sub-skills in word recognition, reading comprehension and spelling over a period of three years. Two samples, including 12 schools each, were drawn at random. The data have been analysed by means of the general LISREL-model. The results of the two groups largely agree with each other. With respect to the reading prerequisites two factors are found, a general factor and an auditory factor. The influence of the general factor appears clearly stronger than the other one. After 3 to 4 months of formal reading instruction, decoding speed and spelling turn out to be distinguishable factors. The influence of spelling on decoding skills supports the view that at this initial stage accuracy in the analysis and blending of words is a prerequisite to learning to decode quickly. It may be concluded that after eight months of reading instruction decoding skills, reading comprehension and spelling are clearly distinguishable factors. Decoding skills influence reading comprehension. However, the path coefficients are not so high as to be able to attribute differences in reading comprehension almost completely to differences in decoding skills. The distinctive character of the three factors of decoding, comprehension and spelling is revealed much more clearly than in cross-sectional research. These results correspond with the assumption that cross-sectionally found causal effects often decrease or disappear all together in favour of ‘memory effects’ in longitudinal research.     

Reading and spelling development in Brazilian Portuguese

This paper describes the development of reading and spelling procedures in Portuguese speaking children from 1st to 4th grade and discusses whether the developmental models of Frith, Seymour and Stuart & Coltheart may account for this development. This study is based on reaction time and error measurements of the reading and spelling of isolated words and pseudowords. The words varied in frequency, length and spelling-to-sound-regularity and the non-words varied only in length and spelling-to-sound regularity. The results indicated that the children tested did not pass through a logographic stage and that their reading and spelling initially involved a non-lexical process which from the beginning was influenced by a developing lexical process (that became progressively more important as development progressed), suggesting the use of overlapping processes. This finding contradicts Frith's strictly sequential theory but not Seymour's model, which allows for concurrent development of processes. Despite the fact that the present data do not fit into the definition of Seymour's orthographic stage, there were indications of a shift from the alphabetic to the orthographic stage and also that the process of lexicalization occurs more rapidly in reading than in spelling. Another finding was that the dual-process reading/spelling model, developed in English, can be extended to Portuguese.     

Reading and spelling acquisition in Thai children

Thai, a tonal language, has its own distinctive alphabetic orthography. The study investigates reading and spelling development in Thai children, with an aim of examining the grain size that is predominantly used when reading and spelling. Furthermore, word and nonword lists were developed to examine the acquisition of the complex system of vowels and tone rules in Thai. Reading and spelling of words and nonwords were assessed in 60 Thai children ranging in age from 7 to 9 years 8 months from Grade(s) 1, 2, and 3. A lexicality effect was found for both reading and spelling. Spelling lagged behind reading in the Grade 1 children. Development rapidly increased between the youngest Grade 1 children and the older Grade 2 and 3 children. For word reading there were significantly more lexical errors than phonological errors. Beginning readers appear to predominantly use a larger lexico-syllabic grain size to read Thai.     

Reading and spelling error analysis of native

This study was an investigation of reading and spelling errors of dyslexic Arabic readers (n=20) compared with two groups of normal readers: a young readers group, matched with the dyslexics by reading level (n=20) and an age-matched group (n=20). They were tested on reading and spelling of texts, isolated words and pseudowords. Two research questions were the focus of this study: What are the reading and spelling profile errors of dyslexic native Arabic speakers? What is the effect of the Arabic orthography on these types of errors? The results of the reading error analysis revealed a clear contribution of the uniqueness of the Arabic orthography to the types of errors made by the three different groups. In addition, the error profiles of the dyslexic readers were similar to the error profiles made by the younger reading-level-matched group in percentages and in quality. The most prominent types of errors were morphological and semiphonetic, which highlighted the contribution of the Arabic orthography to these types of errors. Consistently, the profile of the spelling errors was similar in percentages and quality among the dyslexics and the reading-level-matched group but different from the age-matched group on the spelling measures. The analysis of the spelling errors revealed that the dominant type of error was mostly phonetic due to the limited orthographic lexicon. In addition, the Arabic orthography also contributed to these types of errors because many spelling mistakes were made due to poor knowledge of the spelling rules. The results of the reading and spelling errors are discussed from a reading development point of view. Further, two models are suggested, one for reading and one for spelling, to illustrate the cognitive processes that underlie the reading and spelling mistakes in this type of orthography.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of word recognition and process measures in the Colorado Reading Project

Measures of word recognition (REC) and two component skills, phonological coding (PHON) and orthographic coding (ORTH), were subjected to multivariate behavioral genetic analysis. Data were obtained from a sample of identical and fraternal twin pairs wherein at least one member of each pair was reading disabled (RD), and from a sample of twins wherein both members of each pair read in the normal range. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to fit the genetic, common environmental, and specific environmental covariance components for REC, PHON, and ORTH within the RD and normal simples. The resulting heritability estimates for REC, PHON, and ORTH were 0.59, 0.41, and 0.05 in the RD sample, and 0.35, 0.52, and 0.20 in the normal sample. After dropping the nonsignificant common environment parameters from the models, the genetic correlations between REC and PHON and between REC and ORTH were respectively 0.81 and 0.45 in the RD sample, and 0.68 and 0.45 in the normal sample. Differences between the genetic correlations were significant in the RD sample (p<0.005), marginally significant in the normal sample (p<0.10), and highly significant in the combined sample (p<0.001), indicating that genetic influences on individual differences in REC are more strongly related to genetic variance in PHON than in ORTH. These results are consistent with previous demonstrations of substantial genetic covariance between the disabled group's deficits in REC and PHON, but not between REC and ORTH (Olson et al., 1989; Olson and Rack, 1990).     

Explaining Individual Differences in Reading: on the orthographic component of word recognition

This article first presents a conception of word recognition involving both phonological and orthographic processes. Three different explanations about the origin of orthographic processes in word recognition are then discussed. These explanations are: (1) differences in orthographic memory, (2) differences in phonological processes and (3) differences in leisure time reading. In accord with the third explanation, it is argued that automatic orthographic word recognition is directly dependent on children's amount of reading practice in an out‐of‐school setting. Educational implications of this emphasis on leisure time reading effects are also discussed.     

The relationship between rapid naming and word spelling in English

A study of the concurrent relationships between naming speed, phonological awareness and spelling ability in 146 children in Years 3 and 4 of state‐funded schools in South‐East England (equivalent to US Grades 2 and 3) is reported. Seventy‐two children identified as having normal phonological awareness but reduced rapid automatised naming (RAN) performance (1 standard deviation below the mean) participated in the study. A group of 74 children was further identified. These children were matched on phonological awareness, verbal and nonverbal IQ and visual acuity, but all members of this group showed normal RAN performance. RAN made a significant unique contribution to spelling performance. Further analyses showed that participants with low naming performance were significantly poorer spellers overall and had a specific difficulty in spelling irregular words. The findings support the view that RAN may be indexing processes that are implicated in the establishment of fully specified orthographic representations.     

Reading and spelling acquisition in two different teaching methods: A test of the independence hypothesis

The development of word reading and word spelling was examined in French speaking children initially instructed either by a phonic or a whole-word method. Second, fourth and sixth graders were administered to reading and spelling tests in which grapho-phonological regularity, frequency, length and lexicality were manipulated. The results showed that in both curricula, reading and spelling acquisition can be characterized by a parallel increase in the use of sub-lexical correspondences and in the reliance on word-specific information. Contrary to a simple view of lexical development according to which the use of analytical knowledge and the use of word-specific knowledge correspond to two different cognitive processes that develop independently from each other, whole-word children did not appear to rely more on whole-word knowledge. On the contrary, and paradoxically, grade 2 whole-word children tended to use analytical correspondences to a greater extent than their peers. In later development, reading matched phonic and whole-word groups did not differ from each other. It is argued that the results support the hypothesis that the acquisition of sub-lexical correspondences constitutes a necessary step in the acquisition of reading and spelling. We conclude that the analytic comparison of different curricula provides a naturalistic tool for the study of the dynamics of development.     

Investigating the effects of a game-based approach in teaching word recognition and spelling to students with reading disabilities and attention deficits

The purpose of this small-scale exploratory study was to examine the effects of using a game-based instructional approach to teach word recognition and spelling to Grade 6 students with reading disabilities (RD) and attention deficit disorders. Treatment and comparison groups were formed. The students were placed in either a traditional spelling group or an alternate game group. Different measures of phonological awareness, phonological memory and rapid naming as well as the word recognition and spelling subtests were administered to six students with RD and attention deficits. The study results indicate that students in the game-based approach outperformed students in the traditional, text-based spelling programs. In addition, the remediation of specific deficit subskills was possible through a game-based approach. Rapid naming, word recognition and spelling subtest results all improved through this method, with rapid naming improving the most. The study provides evidence for marked improvement in engaging behavior as well as literacy skills through alternate instructional methodologies.     

Text-to-speech,text, and hypertext: Reading and spelling with the computer

This paper introduces the Special Issue on the use of text-to-speech computer systems and hypertext to aid reading and spelling. It discusses (1) the analysis-by-synthesis principle of text-to-speech conversion, (2) some classroom and research issues in designing usable computer texts, and (3) the criteria of hypertext. The paper emphasizes the importance of the contextual aspects of text and hypertext and situated learning.     

Severe developmental language disorder — Reading and spelling

Linguistic awareness i.e. the ability to identify phonemes, to segment words into syllables and to rhyme is highly correlated with reading/spelling proficiency. Children with severe developmental language disorders DLD (syntagmatic type) have been shown to specifically lack linguistic awareness. Two non-identical twin boys with severe, specific DLD were studied longitudinally with respect to their linguistic, neurolinguistic and pragmatic development. In spite of poor linguistic awareness, the boys acquired normal reading/spelling skills. This might be due to the early and massive language training they were given. However, the boys differ considerably in some aspects of reading and spelling performance. These findings are discussed with reference to their different neurolinguistic and pragmatic profiles.     

The impact of multisensory instruction on learning letter names and sounds,word reading,and spelling

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of simultaneous multisensory structured language instruction promoted better letter name and sound production, word reading, and word spelling for second grade children with typical development (N = 6) or with dyslexia (N = 5) than structured language instruction alone. The use of non-English graphemes (letters) to represent two pretend languages was used to control for children’s lexical knowledge. A multiple baseline, multiple probe across subjects single-case design, with an embedded alternating treatments design, was used to compare the efficacy of multisensory and structured language interventions. Both interventions provided explicit systematic phonics instruction; however, the multisensory intervention also utilized simultaneous engagement of at least two sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile). Participant’s graphed data was visually analyzed, and individual Tau-U and weighted Tau-U effect sizes were calculated for the outcome variables of letter name production, letter sound production, word reading, and word spelling. The multisensory intervention did not provide an advantage over the structured intervention for participants with typical development or dyslexia. However, both interventions had an overall treatment effect for participants with typical development and dyslexia, although intervention effects varied by outcome variable.     

Children's word structure knowledge: Implications for decoding and spelling instruction

Research has shown that not all children internalize the structure of English orthography as they learn to decode and spell. In fact, many children have difficulty mastering these two skills. In this paper, the relevance of word structure knowledge to decoding and spelling instruction and performance is discussed. It was anticipated that explicit, discussion oriented, and direct decoding instruction based on word origin and structure would result in improved reading and spelling performance. During the instruction, students compared and contrasted letter-sound correspondences, syllable patterns, and morpheme patterns in English words of Anglo-Saxon, Romance, and Greek origin. Upper elementary grade students receiving the decoding instruction made significant gains in word structure knowledge and in decoding and spelling achievement.     

Foreign language learning, hyperlexia, and early word recognition

Children with hyperlexia read words spontaneously before the age of five, have impaired comprehension on both listening and reading tasks, and have word recognition skill above expectations based on cognitive and linguistic abilities. One student with hyperlexia and another student with higher word recognition than comprehension skills who started to read words at a very early age were followed over several years from the primary grades through high school when both were completing a second-year Spanish course. The purpose of the present study was to examine the foreign language (FL) word recognition, spelling, reading comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening skills of the two students and another high school student without hyperlexia. Results showed that the student without hyperlexia achieved higher scores than the hyperlexic student and the student with above average word recognition skills on most FL proficiency measures. The student with hyperlexia and the student with above average word recognition skills achieved higher scores on the Spanish proficiency tasks that required the exclusive use of phonological (pronunciation) and phonological/orthographic (word recognition, spelling) skills than on Spanish proficiency tasks that required the use of listening comprehension and speaking and writing skills. The findings provide support for the notion that word recognition and spelling in a FL may be modular processes and exist independently of general cognitive and linguistic skills. Results also suggest that students may have stronger FL learning skills in one language component than in other components of language, and that there may be a weak relationship between FL word recognition and oral proficiency in the FL.