What do spelling errors tell us? Classification and analysis of errors made by Greek schoolchildren with and without dyslexia

In this study we propose a classification system for spelling errors and determine the most common spelling difficulties of Greek children with and without dyslexia. Spelling skills of 542 children from the general population and 44 children with dyslexia, Grades 3–4 and 7, were assessed with a dictated common word list and age-appropriate passages. Spelling errors were classified into broad categories, including phonological (graphophonemic mappings), grammatical (inflectional suffixes), orthographic (word stems), stress assignment (diacritic), and punctuation. Errors were further classified into specific subcategories. Relative proportions for a total of 11,364 errors were derived by calculating the opportunities for each error type. Nondyslexic children of both age groups made primarily grammatical and stress errors, followed by orthographic errors. Phonological and punctuation errors were negligible. Most frequent specific errors were in derivational affixes, stress diacritics, inflectional suffixes, and vowel historical spellings. Older children made fewer errors, especially in inflectional suffixes. Dyslexic children differed from nondyslexic ones in making more errors of the same types, in comparable relative proportions. Spelling profiles of dyslexic children did not differ from those of same-age children with poor reading skills or of younger children matched in reading and phonological awareness. In conclusion, spelling errors of both dyslexic and nondyslexic children indicate persistent difficulty with internalizing regularities of the Greek orthographic lexicon, including derivational, inflectional, and word (stem) families. This difficulty is greater for children with dyslexia.     

Dyslexia and musical notation

The authors examine the difficulties experienced by dyslexic musicians in the formalized study of music, in particular, musical notation. They describe case studies from the literature and from personal interviews they conducted with musicians about their educational histories, musical weaknesses and strengths, and successful compensatory strategies. The authors make instructional suggestions for educators and musicians with dyslexia on how to use multisensory approaches to teach musical notation.     

The mathematical strengths and weaknesses of children with dyslexia

This paper reports the findings of two related studies that examined the mathematical strengths and weaknesses of children with dyslexia. In study one, dyslexic children were compared to children without special educational needs on tests that assessed arithmetic fact recall, place value understanding and counting speed. Study two used the same methodology, but matched the dyslexic children with the non‐dyslexic children on a number of factors, including intellectual ability. This excluded the possibility that confounding variables accounted for the differences between the groups in study one. Both studies indicated that the dyslexic children had slower and less accurate number fact recall than the non‐dyslexic children, but had unimpaired place value understanding. The results for counting speed were more equivocal, but there was a trend for the dyslexic children to be slower counters. The results suggest that dyslexia is not normally associated with a general mathematical impairment, but rather an uneven profile of skills. This profile can be explained in terms of the phonological processing weaknesses associated with dyslexia. The finding that dyslexic children have a specific difficulty recalling arithmetic facts suggests that a teaching programme that emphasises mental methods may disadvantage them.     

Are there delays in reporting dyslexia in university learners? Experiences of university learning support staff

The number of students entering higher education in the UK has increased over the last few years due to the previous Labour Government directives to widen participation to a range of socially disadvantaged and/or under-represented groups. Dyslexic students form the largest single group of minority students currently entering higher education. However, there are ongoing challenges in identifying and supporting dyslexic students as there no obligation for students to report specific learning needs before or after they enter higher education. In order to cast more light on this ongoing issue, a small-scale educational research study was undertaken in December 2012 to investigate whether there may be delays in the reporting of dyslexia in learners once they commence higher educational study. The day-to-day working experiences of four support staff based at a learning services department in one UK university were explored. Methodology involved adopting a qualitative exploratory design using digitally recorded semi-structured interviews and a snowball sample. Interview data was analysed using thematic analysis. The key findings of the study indicated that dyslexia was more likely to be reported in the second and third year of a student’s higher educational journey. Further analysis of the study findings indicated a myriad of reasons for delayed or late reporting of dyslexia. Such reasons included maintaining of a non-disabled student identity, financial and/or time constraints or consciously and strategically deciding when to disclose dyslexia to improve final degree classifications. A number of further recommendations are made to enhance inclusive learning and teaching practices.     

Divergent Thinking in Italian Students with and Without Reading Impairments

Several studies have explored the relationship between dyslexia and creativity, but results have been rather mixed. This study examines whether Italian dyslexic children are more creative than their peers without a reading impairment. One hundred ninety Italian children aged between 9 and 13 participated in this study, divided into two groups: Ninety five dyslexic students and ninety five peers without a reading impairment. All the participants’ creativity skills were assessed. The results indicated that dyslexic children outperformed their peers in the total score, and in the originality, elaboration, and titles sub-scores, whereas no differences were found in the fluency and flexibility sub-scores. The results are discussed in relation to the practical implications, and provide indications for supportive learning environments.     

Dyslexia speed problems in a transparent orthography

This study was intended to help clarify the nature of dyslexia in Spanish. A sample of 30 children, 8 to 16 years old, participated in this study. Dyslexic children were compared to two control groups, a chronological age-matched control group and a reading level-matched control group. Measures included nonword and pseudohomophone reading (phonological procedure), homophone choice (orthographic procedure), and phonological awareness tasks (syllabic, intrasyllabic, and phonemic level). For each task, accuracy (error percentage) and performance time were measured. Results showed a deficit in the dyslexic group on all the tasks, which was more evident when time was considered. With the results consistent with studies in other transparent orthographies such as Italian and German, speed problems seem to be more evident and relevant than accuracy problems in Spanish dyslexic children.

Implicit sequence learning is preserved in dyslexic children

This study investigates the implicit sequence learning abilities of dyslexic children using an artificial grammar learning task with an extended exposure period. Twenty children with developmental dyslexia participated in the study and were matched with two control groups—one matched for age and other for reading skills. During 3 days, all participants performed an acquisition task, where they were exposed to colored geometrical forms sequences with an underlying grammatical structure. On the last day, after the acquisition task, participants were tested in a grammaticality classification task. Implicit sequence learning was present in dyslexic children, as well as in both control groups, and no differences between groups were observed. These results suggest that implicit learning deficits per se cannot explain the characteristic reading difficulties of the dyslexics.     

Phonological and lexical reading in Italian children with dyslexia

In this study we explore the development of phonological and lexical reading in dyslexic children. We tested a group of 14 Italian children who have been diagnosed with dyslexia and whose reading age is end of grade 1. We compared this group with a group of 70 typically developing children who have been tested for reading at the end of grade 1. For each dyslexic child we also selected a participant who was attending the same grade, was close in age, and showed typical reading development when tested with a narrative passage reading task (Cornoldi, Colpo, & Gruppo MT, 1981) for correctness and reading speed. Children in this group are “same grade controls.” We used a reading task consisting of 40 three syllables words. A qualitative and quantitative method of coding children’s naming allowed us to distinguish several components of their reading performance: the grapheme and word recognition, the size of orthographic units involved in the aloud orthography–phonology conversion, the reading process used to recognize words. The comparison of the dyslexic group with the reading age and the same grade control groups reveals different trends of delayed reading processes. Considering dyslexic children’s chronological age, lexical reading is greatly delayed. Considering dyslexic children’s reading age, the type of reading process that is more deeply delayed is phonological reading. The rate of fragmented phonological reading (i.e., a type of syllabized phonological reading) is much higher in dyslexic children compared to the reading age group, suggesting that some factors undermine the possibility of internalizing the orthography–phonology conversion and the blending processes.     

The impact of virtual reality on parents’ awareness of cognitive perceptions of a dyslectic child

Parents of dyslexic children encounter many difficulties in understanding and accepting their children’s disability. This affects the child’s self-image and the way s/he copes (Hallahan and Kauffman 1991; Einat 2003). The goal of this study was to develop VR immersive simulated states. The simulation was designed to help the parents of dyslexic children experience the kind of errors their children make when reading. Two groups of parents of dyslexic children participated in this experiment, an experimental group (N = 37), which experienced ten 3D worlds simulating different kinds of reading errors, and a control group (N = 30), that watched a movie describing and explaining similar errors. All the subjects were administered a cognitive questionnaire (Shavit 2005) before and after the intervention. In addition, the participants in the experimental group were interviewed before and after the intervention. The results indicate that experiencing a variety of simulated types of dyslexia with virtual reality can bring about improvement in parents’ awareness of the dyslexic child’s cognitive experiences, and that this improvement is significantly greater than that achieved by watching a film about dyslexia.     

The mathematical abilities of dyslexic 10-year-olds

Seventy-two items testing various aspects of mathematics were given to 12,131 ten-year-old children. Criteria for specific developmental dyslexia (SDD) and for other groupings are specified. Despite the absence of differences in intelligence level, the mean score on the mathematics test for the dyslexics was not only lower than that of the normal achievers but lower also than that of underachievers believed not to be dyslexic. On some of the 72 items, there was little difference in percentage pass rate between the groups; on others, however, there were wide differences. On the basis of ratings carried out “blind” by a panel of experienced teachers of dyslexic children, and in the light of other considerations, some tentative suggestions are put forward as to what it is about certain mathematical items that makes them relatively hard or easy for children with dyslexia.     

Self-concept and self-esteem in developmental dyslexia

Self-concept and self-esteem in two groups of dyslexic children (mainstream placement and SpLD unit placement, total N=63) were examined. Interviews and a questionnaire (the SDQ-1) were utilised, giving a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Where appropriate, a control group of 57 children without learning difficulties was assimilated into the research design. The main findings were that the presence of dyslexia produced marked effects on the self-concept and self-esteem of children, although this was more apparent in the participants attending mainstream schools than those in SpLD units. The qualitative data revealed that children with dyslexia felt isolated and excluded in their schools, and that, typically, up to half were regularly teased or bullied. The findings were related to self-concept and self-esteem theory, and current educational practice. The limitations in terms of research design and analysis were also noted.     

The Relationship of Spelling Recognition, RAN, and Phonological Awareness to Reading Skills in Older Poor Readers and Younger Reading-Matched Controls

The role of spelling recognition was examined in word reading skills and reading comprehension for dyslexic and nondyslexic children. Dyslexic and nondyslexic children were matched on their raw word reading proficiency. Relationships between spelling recognition and the following were examined for both groups of children: verbal ability, working memory, phonological measures, rapid naming, word reading, and reading comprehension. Children’s performance in spelling recognition was significantly associated with their skills in word reading and reading comprehension regardless of their reading disability status. Furthermore, spelling recognition contributed significant variance to reading comprehension for both dyslexic and nondyslexic children after the effects of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and word reading proficiency had been accounted for. The results support the role of spelling recognition in reading development for both groups of children and they are discussed using a componential reading fluency framework.     

Orthographic learning in dyslexic Spanish children

Reading fluency is one of the basic processes of learning to read. Children begin to develop fluency when they are able to form orthographic representations of words, which provide direct, smooth, and fast reading. Dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems are mainly characterized by poor reading fluency (Cuetos & Suárez-Coalla 2009; Spinelli, De Luca, Di Filippo, Mancini, Martelli, & Zoccolotti, 2005; Wimmer, 1993). Therefore, the main problem for these children could be the difficulty in developing orthographic representations of the words they read. The aim of this study was to test the ability of dyslexic Spanish-speaking children (whose native language is Spanish) to develop orthographic representations and determine if the context helps them. For this, two experiments were conducted with a group of 100 children, 7–12 years of age. The groups were comprised of 20 dyslexics, 40 chronological age-matched controls and 40 reading level-matched controls. In the first experiment, eight unfamiliar words (four short and four long) were presented six times within the context of a story. In the second experiment, eight pseudowords were presented on a computer and the children had to read them aloud. In both experiments, the reading and articulation times of experimental and control stimuli were compared, before and after the training. Children without dyslexia showed a decrease of the influence of length of word on reading speed, indicating a lexical reading, while for dyslexic children, the influence of length remained unchanged. These results appeared when the stimuli were presented in the context of a story as well as when presented in isolation. In short, our results describe that dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems have problems in developing orthographic representations of words.     

The relationship between personality adjustment and success in remedial programs in dyslexic children

Dyslexic and a normal group consisting of 104 children each were matched with reference to age, income, intelligence, and sex. Specific personality dimensions including self-concept, achievement motivation, general manifest anxiety, test anxiety, and behavior deviance were measured. Dyslexic children showed poorer adjustment in all areas of personality. Comparison of results within the dyslexic group showed that children who are successful in remedial training show better emotional adjustments than unsuccessful dyslexic children. A stepwise multiple regression analysis employing personality variables and overall success in remedial language training was computed. Classroom behavior and self concept were found to correlate with success and yielded a multiple correlation of .544. Results are discussed with reference to remediation and treatment.     

Identification of sub-types of students with learning disabilities in reading and its implications for Chinese word recognition and instructional methods in Hong Kong primary schools

This paper consists of three studies. The first study aimed to identify sub-types of students with learning disabilities in reading. Based on the dual-route model of reading, words may be read using either a lexical (words are recognized as wholes) or a sub-lexical (words are recognized through grapheme-phoneme correspondence) procedure. Castles and Coltheart (1993) provided evidence for the existence of these two mechanisms in English reading. They suggested that deficits in one and/or the other mechanism would lead to different patterns of reading disability. Surface dyslexia results from an impairment of the lexical procedure with an intact phonological route to reading. Phonological dyslexia results from a deficit in the grapheme-phoneme transformation mechanism. A higher percentage of surface dyslexia was identified in the present study. The aim of the second study was to analyze reading errors to support the existence of surface and phonological dyslexic patterns in Chinese reading. The results showed that students with surface dyslexic pattern made more phonological errors, whereas students with phonological dyslexic pattern made more semantic errors. These two studies indicate that students with learning disabilities could have different strengths and weaknesses and could have different preferences for recognizing Chinese characters and different responses to instructional methods. The third study was designed to test the effects of different teaching methods and different kinds of Chinese characters on students with learning disabilities. In general, the analytic method was found more effective for students with surface dyslexic pattern and the whole-word method for those with the phonological dyslexic pattern. The findings of this study showed the importance of identifying the strengths of the different sub-types of readers and the need to choose appropriate instructional methods accordingly.     

Performance of children with developmental dyslexia on high and low topological entropy artificial grammar learning task

Graph complexity as measured by topological entropy has been previously shown to affect performance on artificial grammar learning tasks among typically developing children. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of graph complexity on implicit sequential learning among children with developmental dyslexia. Our goal was to determine whether children’s performance depends on the complexity level of the grammar system learned. We conducted two artificial grammar learning experiments that compared performance of children with developmental dyslexia with that of age- and reading level-matched controls. Experiment 1 was a high topological entropy artificial grammar learning task that aimed to establish implicit learning phenomena in children with developmental dyslexia using previously published experimental conditions. Experiment 2 is a lower topological entropy variant of that task. Results indicated that given a high topological entropy grammar system, children with developmental dyslexia who were similar to the reading age-matched control group had substantial difficulty in performing the task as compared to typically developing children, who exhibited intact implicit learning of the grammar. On the other hand, when tested on a lower topological entropy grammar system, all groups performed above chance level, indicating that children with developmental dyslexia were able to identify rules from a given grammar system. The results reinforced the significance of graph complexity when experimenting with artificial grammar learning tasks, particularly with dyslexic participants.     

Do dyslexics misread a ROWS for a ROSE?

Insufficient knowledge of the subtle relations between words’ spellings and their phonology is widely held to be the primary limitation in developmental dyslexia. In the present study the influence of phonology on a semantic-based reading task was compared for groups of readers with and without dyslexia. As many studies have shown, skilled readers make phonology-based false-positive errors to homophones and pseudohomophones in the semantic categorization task. The basic finding was extended to children, teens, and adults with dyslexia from familial and clinically-referred samples. Dyslexics showed the same overall pattern of phonology errors and the results were consistent across dyslexia samples, across age groups, and across experimental conditions using word and nonword homophone foils. The dyslexic groups differed from chronological-age matched controls by having elevated false-positive homophone error rates overall, and weaker effects of baseword frequency. Children with dyslexia also made more false-positive errors to spelling control foils. These findings suggest that individuals with dyslexia make use of phonology when making semantic decisions both to word homophone and non-word pseudohomophone foils and that dyslexics lack adequate knowledge of actual word spellings, compared to chronological-age and reading-level matched control participants.     

Questioning the benefits that coloured overlays can have for reading in students with and without dyslexia

Visual stress (the experience of visual distortions and discomfort during prolonged reading) is frequently identified and alleviated with coloured overlays or lenses. Previous studies have associated visual stress with dyslexia and as a consequence, coloured overlays are widely distributed to children and adults with reading difficulty. However, this practice remains controversial. We investigated whether overlays have advantageous and reliable benefits for reading in undergraduate students with and without dyslexia. Both groups read jumbled text faster with a coloured overlay than without. The dyslexic group did not show greater gains than controls, despite reporting significantly more symptoms of visual stress. However, coloured overlays did not improve reading rate or comprehension of connected text. The improvement in reading speed with an overlay was not reliable and was significantly reduced at retesting for dyslexic students. These results question the value of coloured overlays as a tool for identifying visual stress and as a form of remediation for the reading difficulties associated with dyslexia.     

Spanish dyslexic spelling abilities: the case of consonant clusters

This paper investigates Spanish dyslexic spelling abilities: specifically, the influence of syllabic linguistic structure (simple vs consonant cluster) on children's spelling performance. Consonant clusters are phonologically complex structures, so it was anticipated that there would be lower spelling performance for these syllabic structures than in simple ones, because of the poor phonological processing of dyslexic children. The participants were 31 dyslexic children, 31 chronological age‐matched children and 31 reading level‐matched children. A dictation task with words and pseudowords (with and without consonant clusters) was used. Word lexical frequency was controlled. The results show that the spelling of consonant clusters presents difficulties for dyslexic spelling performance despite this structure being orthographically consistent. Dyslexic children present a higher performance difference in items with consonant clusters than in simple items, compared with typically developing children. The work raises questions about the items used for the identification of dyslexic children's difficulties.     

Effects of Visual and Phonological Distinctness on Visual–verbal Paired Associate Learning in Dutch Dyslexic and Normal Readers

In three studies, the effects of visual and phonological distinctness on the visual–verbal paired associate learning of dyslexic and normal readers at the age of 10–12 were examined. We hypothesized that both groups would be equally affected by the visual distinctness of the pictures, whereas the learning performance of the dyslexic children would be more susceptible to the phonological distinctness of the verbal stimuli (words). As expected, in Study 1 we found that the visual distinctness of pictures had a similar effect on both groups. However, the results of Studies 2 and 3 on the effect of phonological distinctness did not support the hypothesis. Both reader groups were equally affected by the phonological distinctness of the words. In addition, we found that, although not consistently, dyslexic children tended to be worse in verbal learning, which could to a large extent be explained by their problems with phonological processing.