The adolescent dyslexic: Strategies for spelling

The adolescent dyslexic student’s problems with spelling are very different from those of a young dyslexic child, as he already has considerable knowledge of the English spelling system. But this knowledge is very often random and confused, so he needs to acquire a logical structure which will enable him to generate spelling for himself and to communicate effectively in writing. It will be suggested that accuracy is not always attainable, but the student can be taught to recognize and use the main components of the spelling system and can learn to employ all available resources. The general aim is to provide the dyslexic adolescent with the tools he needs to cope with his spelling requirements, both in school and outside; to make informed deductions; to think for himself. In short, to spell independently and logically.     

Length effects in pseudo-word spelling: stronger in dyslexic than in non-dyslexic students

It is often discussed whether dyslexics show a deviant pattern of reading and spelling development when compared to typically developing students, or whether they follow the same pattern as other students, only at markedly slower rate. The present cross-sectional study investigated phonological encoding skills in dyslexic Danish students. We compared dyslexic and non-dyslexic students from grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 and examined whether effects of item length were stronger in the dyslexic groups. Mixed between-within subjects analyses of variance revealed significant interactions between dyslexia status and item length as the dyslexics at all grade levels were more affected by item length than their non-dyslexic peers. A marked developmental delay was apparent as the dyslexic group from grade 9 performed on approximately the same level as the non-dyslexic group from grade 3. Although the overall difference between these two groups was not significant, a significant interaction between dyslexia status and item length remained because the grade 9 dyslexics were more affected by item length than the younger non-dyslexic students. This difference in error profiles suggests a difference in the developmental patterns of dyslexic vs. non-dyslexic students.     

Phonological spelling errors in the writing of dyslexic adolescents

Spelling researchers in the past have disagreed about the meaning of spelling errors for the diagnosis of dyslexia. Many studies have reported that spelling errors of individuals with dyslexia are similar to those of younger children but that they are not deviant or unusual. In this study, spelling errors from the spontaneous writing of 19 adolescents with a history of reading problems and persistent spelling difficulties were analyzed. The poorer spellers in this group made more errors than the better spellers on certain phonological and morphophonological constructions. Specifically, the poorer spellers made a disproportionately large number of errors in their representation of liquid and nasal consonants, especially after vowels, and their spellings of inflections -ed and -s. Even though poor spellers might eventually learn to spell with reasonable phonetic accuracy, their spelling appears to be marked by persistent, intractable difficulties representing specific phonological and morphophonological features of words.     

Adult spelling strategies

The goal of this study was to investigate how adult English speakers, who are good readers, but who differ in spelling ability, remember word-specific spelling information. In the first experiment, participants learned the spellings of words they had previously misspelled, while thinking out loud. The main strategies observed in order of popularity were: letter rehearsal, overpronunciation, comparison of the remembered and the correct spelling, morphological analysis and visualisation. All strategies produced good learning success for the better spellers, but weaker spellers had less success with overpronunciation, comparison and morphological analysis. In a second experiment, when participants were shown their misspelling and the correct spelling, and instructed to use either overpronunciation or comparison to learn the correct spelling, learning success was independent of spelling ability. However, sequential verbal memory ability was associated with greater success in using overpronunciation, and sequential visual memory ability with greater success in using comparison. The findings provide new insight into the types of strategies that advanced learners use spontaneously to memorise arbitrary letter sequences, as well as revealing how effective the strategies are.     

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.     

Applying effective instructional strategies for teaching dyslexic students in a remedial college algebra course

For many secondary and postsecondary students with dyslexia, passing required algebra courses presents a formidable challenge. Although dyslexic students do have specific and sometimes severe learning deficits that can affect their chances of success in algebra, they can succeed if given appropriate and effective instruction that meets their special and individual needs. This article briefly describes the application of effective instructional practices to the teaching of remedial algebra that have been used with dyslexic students in the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Project Success program.     

Story comprehension and recall in dyslexic students

This article is an extension of work reported earlier in this journal (Weaver 1978). In that paper, we echoed the commonly suggested need for examining reading difficulties in relation to higher-order language processes and offered a schema-theoretical framework for guiding such an examination. In this article we report the findings and implications of an empirical investigation into the characteristics of story recall abilities in students with dyslexia or severe reading disabilities.     

The relationship between the phonological strategies employed In reading and spelling

This paper summarises a longitudinal study which examined the relationship between the abilities of young children to read and spell phonologically. Empirical evidence of Bryant and Bradley (1980) and Cataldo and Ellis (1988) to show that children acquire the ability to use a phonological strategy for spelling before the ability to use an equivalent strategy for reading is confirmed. Implications for the teaching of reading are discussed.     

Spelling improvement for college students who are dyslexic

Academic problems of the dyslexic child often persist in adult life. Such problems as spelling can interfere with the performance of such adult learners in college. Federal legislation requires reasonable accommodation for these students. At some colleges, this consists of allowing use of tape recorders in lectures and sometimes allowing extra time on examinations. Remediation of reading, writing, and spelling among dyslexic college students is often not addressed. This study reports the use of a modified Orton-Gillingham approach in comparison with a nonphonetic approach and with a group receiving no remediation. The results indicate a significant increase in spelling performance for the group receiving the modified Orton-Gillingham remediation. This contrasts with no significant change in the group receiving nonphonetic remediation and in the control group (no remediation), and indicates that adulthood is not too late for appropriate intervention for the dyslexic student. Colleges offering such intervention and the students receiving it will benefit from improved performance.     

The effect of using laptops on the spelling skills of students with learning disabilities

The current study examined the effect of using laptops on the spelling skills of students with learning disabilities (LD). It was conducted as part of the Israeli “Katom” (A Computer for Every Class, Student, and Teacher) Program. Participants included 93 Hebrew-speaking students with LD aged 13–16, who attend 10 special education classes in a regular middle school. We examined whether the experimental group using laptops showed significant differences in the number of their spelling errors as a result of the intervention on their pre- and post-spelling tests. We also investigated whether there would be differences on the number of spelling errors between the experimental and control groups, as measured by their pre- and post-spelling test results. The findings indicated that the participants in the experimental group significantly improved their spelling skills as opposed to the control group. It seems that the use of laptops in special education classes can enhance the spelling skills of students with LD.     

A synthesis of spelling and reading interventions and their effects on the spelling outcomes of students with LD

Previous research studies examining the effects of spelling and reading interventions on the spelling outcomes of students with learning disabilities (LD) are synthesized. An extensive search of the professional literature between 1995 and 2003 yielded a total of 19 intervention studies that provided spelling and reading interventions to students with LD and measured spelling outcomes. Findings revealed that spelling outcomes were consistently improved following spelling interventions that included explicit instruction with multiple practice opportunities and immediate corrective feedback after the word was misspelled. Furthermore, evidence from spelling interventions that employed assistive technology aimed at spelling in written compositions indicated positive effects on spelling outcomes.     

The use of morphological knowledge in spelling derived forms by learning-disabled and normal students

Currently popular systems for classification of spelling words or errors emphasize the learning of phoneme-grapheme correspondences and memorization of irregular words, but do not take into account the morphophonemic nature of the English language. This study is based on the premise that knowledge of the morphological rules of derivational morphology is acquired developmentally and is related to the spelling abilities of both normal and learning-disabled (LD) students. It addresses three issues: 1) how the learning of derivational morphology and the spelling of derived words by LD students compares to that of normal students; 2) whether LD students learn derived forms rulefully; and 3) the extent to which LD and normal students use knowledge of relationships between base and derived forms to spell derived words (e.g. “magic” and “magician”). The results showed that LD ninth graders’ knowledge of derivational morphology was equivalent to that of normal sixth graders, following similar patterns of mastery of orthographic and phonological rules, but that their spelling of derived forms was equivalent to that of the fourth graders. Thus, they know more about derivational morphology than they use in spelling. In addition, they were significantly more apt to spell derived words as whole words, without regard for morphemic structure, than even the fourth graders. Nonetheless, most of the LD spelling errors were phonetically acceptable, suggesting that their misspellings cannot be attributed primarily to poor knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences. I am indebted to Laurel Fais and students in the Language Training program at the Forman School in Litchfield, Connecticut, for their participation in this study. The first phase of this research project was sponsored by NICHD grant HD-01994 to Haskins Laboratories and by a Dissertation Fellowship from the University of Connecticut. The final stages of work on this project were completed while I was at American International College.     

Patterns of spelling in young deaf and hard of hearing students

The study examined the invented spelling abilities demonstrated by kindergarten and first-grade deaf and hard of hearing students. The study included two parts: In Part 1, the researcher compared three groups (deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing) using posttesting only on the Early Reading Screening Inventory, or ERSI (Morris, 1998), and in part 2 collected and analyzed samples of the spelling of deaf students in a Total Communication program. Analysis showed that the deaf group performed significantly differently in three areas: concept of word, word recognition, and phoneme awareness ("invented spelling"; Read, 1971). The deaf group outperformed the hearing and hard of hearing groups in concept of word and word recognition. But in phoneme awareness, the deaf group performed significantly less well than the hearing group. Therefore, the deaf group's spelling was followed for 1 year. Deaf students' spelling patterns were not the same as those of hearing and hard of hearing students. Deaf students' spelling miscues were directly related to the cueing systems of lipreading, signing, and fingerspelling.