Spelling abilities of school-aged children with Williams syndrome.

AIMS: We examined the relation between spelling ability and word-reading ability in children with Williams syndrome (WS). METHODS: Eighty 9-17-year-olds with genetically-confirmed WS completed standardized tests of spelling, word reading, and intellectual ability; 45 also completed tests of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Reading instruction method was classified as Phonics or Other. RESULTS: Spelling ability varied widely. Although at the group level, spelling standard scores (SSs) were significantly lower than word-reading SSs, at the individual level, this difference was significant for fewer than half the participants. Spelling and reading SSs were highly correlated, even after controlling for intellectual ability. Students taught to read using systematic phonics instruction had significantly higher spelling SSs than those taught to read using other approaches, even after controlling for intellectual ability. Spelling ability contributed significant unique variance to word-reading ability, beyond the effects of phonological awareness, vocabulary, and reading instruction method. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with Ehri's Word Identity Amalgamation Theory. In combination with previous meta-analytic findings for typically developing children (Graham & Santangelo, 2014) our results suggest that children with WS are likely to benefit from the inclusion of systematic spelling instruction as part of a systematic phonics approach to teaching word reading.

Measuring Lexical Quality: The Role of Spelling Ability.

The construct of 'lexical quality' (Perfetti Scientific Studies of Reading 11, 357-383, 2007) is widely invoked in literature on word recognition and reading to refer to a systematic dimension of individual differences that predicts performance in a range of word identification and reading tasks in both developing readers and skilled adult populations. Many different approaches have been used to assess lexical quality, but few have captured the orthographic precision that is central to the construct. This paper describes, evaluates, and disseminates spelling dictation and spelling recognition tests that were developed to provide sensitive measures of the precision component of lexical quality in skilled college student readers - the population that has provided most of the benchmark data for models of word recognition and reading. Analyses are reported for 785 students who completed the spelling tests in conjunction with standardized measures of reading comprehension, vocabulary, and reading speed, of whom 107 also completed author recognition and phonemic decoding tests. Internal consistency analyses showed that both spelling tests were relatively unidimensional and displayed good internal consistency, although the recognition test contained too many easy items. Item-level analyses are included to provide the basis for further refinement of these instruments. The spelling tests were moderately correlated with the other measures of written language proficiency, but factor analyses revealed that they consistently defined a separate component, demonstrating that they tap a dimension of variability that is partially independent of variance in reading comprehension, speed, and vocabulary. These components appear to align with the precision and coherence dimensions of lexical quality.

Individual differences in spelling ability influence phonological processing during visual word recognition.

In the research reported here, we investigated how phonological processing in the lexical decision task is influenced by individual differences in the reading and spelling abilities of participants. We used phonological neighborhood spread as a measure of phonological processing. Spread refers to the number of phoneme positions in a word that can be changed to form a phonological neighbor. Replicating previous research, we found that words forming neighbors across three positions (P3) were recognized more rapidly than those forming neighbors across only two positions (P2). Importantly, we found that this spread effect interacted with spelling ability. The difference between P3 and P2 was largest when spelling recognition was high and spelling production low. These opposing effects of spelling ability are explained in terms of a language system that consists of separate orthographic systems for reading and spelling. Although these two orthographic systems are separate, they share information through a shared response buffer (Jones & Rawson, 2016). Within this framework, it is argued that lexical decisions are made once the information in the response buffer reaches threshold and that time to reach this threshold is influenced by two sources. One is the quality of the orthographic connections in the reading system and is measured by spelling recognition. The other is the quality of the orthographic connections in the spelling system and is measured by spelling production.

Word skipping: Effects of word length, predictability, spelling and reading skill.

Readers' eyes often skip over words as they read. Skipping rates are largely determined by word length; short words are skipped more than long words. However, the predictability of a word in context also impacts skipping rates. Rayner, Slattery, Drieghe and Liversedge reported an effect of predictability on word skipping for even long words (10-13 characters) that extend beyond the word identification span. Recent research suggests that better readers and spellers have an enhanced perceptual span. We explored that whether reading and spelling skill interact with word length and predictability to impact word skipping rates in a large sample (N = 92) of average and poor adult readers. Participants read the items from Rayner et al., while their eye movements were recorded. Spelling skill (zSpell) was assessed using the dictation and recognition tasks developed by Sally Andrews and colleagues. Reading skill (zRead) was assessed from reading speed (words per minute) and comprehension accuracy of three 120 word passages each with 10 comprehension questions. We fit linear mixed models to the target gaze duration data and generalized linear mixed models to the target word skipping data. Target word gaze durations were significantly predicted by zRead, while the skipping likelihoods were significantly predicted by zSpell. Additionally, for gaze durations, zRead significantly interacted with word predictability as better readers relied less on context to support word processing. These effects are discussed in relation to the lexical quality hypothesis and eye movement models of reading.

Spelling Errors in French-speaking Children with Dyslexia: Phonology May Not Provide the Best Evidence.

For children with dyslexia, learning to write constitutes a great challenge. There has been consensus that the explanation for these learners' delay is related to a phonological deficit. Results from studies designed to describe dyslexic children's spelling errors are not always as clear concerning the role of phonological processes as those found in reading studies. In irregular languages like French, spelling abilities involve other processes than phonological processes. The main goal of this study was to describe the relative contribution of these other processes in dyslexic children's spelling ability. In total, 32 francophone dyslexic children with a mean age of 11.4 years were compared with 24 reading-age matched controls (RA) and 24 chronological-age matched controls (CA). All had to write a text that was analysed at the graphemic level. All errors were classified as either phonological, morphological, visual-orthographic or lexical. Results indicated that dyslexic children's spelling ability lagged behind not only that of the CA group but also of the RA group. Because the majority of errors, in all groups, could not be explained by inefficiency of phonological processing, the importance of visual knowledge/processes will be discussed as a complementary explanation of dyslexic children's delay in writing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

O Impacto do Ensino de Regras Morfológicas na Escrita / The Impact of Teaching Morphological Rules in Writing / El Impacto de la Enseñanza de Reglas Morfológicas en la Escritura

Este estudo investiga a contribuição do ensino de regras morfológicas para a escrita de palavras e pseudopalavras. Participaram 111 (cento e onze) alunos do 4º ano fundamental de uma escola pública, separados em três grupos experimentais e um grupo de controle. Os estudantes foram submetidos a pré-teste e pós-teste (imediato e diferido) em medidas de controle e discriminação escrita. A intervenção trabalhou com o ensino explícito de regras abordando os seguintes elementos mórficos: "-esa"/"-eza" (morfologia derivacional), "-am"/"-ão" (morfologia flexional), "-iu"/"-il" (morfologia flexional e derivacional). Os resultados mostraram que a intervenção provocou um impacto específico no aumento de desempenho na escrita de palavras e, principalmente, na escrita de pseudopalavras, cuja grafia não pode ser acessada de informações lexicais. Os resultados corroboram os de outros estudos, confirmando o efeito positivo e duradouro do ensino explícito de regras morfológicas sobre a escrita de palavras complexas.(AU)

This study investigates how teaching morphological rules contributes to the writing of words and pseudo-words. A total of 111 students from the 4^th grade of a public school were assigned to three experimental groups and one control group. The students were submitted to pre- and post-tests (immediate and delayed) in control measures and word discrimination. The intervention addressed the explicit teaching of rules concerning the following morphological elements in Portuguese: "-esa"/"-eza" (derivational morphology), "-am"/"-ão" (inflectional morphology), "-iu"/"-il" (inflectional and derivational morphology). The results show that the intervention had a specific impact on improved performance in the spelling of words, especially pseudo-words, the spelling of which cannot be derived from lexical information. The results corroborate those reported by other studies, confirming the positive and lasting effect of explicitly teaching morphological rules for the spelling of complex words.(AU)

Este estudio investiga la contribución de la enseñanza de reglas morfológicas para la escritura de palabras y seudopalabras. Participaron 111 (ciento once) alumnos de 4º año de la enseñanza primaria de una escuela pública, separados en tres grupos experimentales y uno de control. Los estudiantes se sometieron a un pre-test y post-test (inmediato y diferido) en medidas de control y discriminación escrita. La intervención trabajó con la enseñanza explícita de reglas que abordan los siguientes elementos mórficos: "-esa"/"-eza" (morfología derivativa), "-am"/"-ao" (morfología flexiva), "-iu"/"-il" (morfología flexiva y derivativa). Los resultados mostraron que la intervención provocó un impacto específico en el aumento de desempeño en la escritura de palabras y, principalmente, en la escritura de pseudopalabras, cuya ortografía no puede ser accedida por informaciones de léxico. Los resultados corroboran los de otros estudios, confirmando el efecto positivo y duradero de la enseñanza explícita de reglas morfológicas sobre la escritura de palabras complejas.(AU)

O impacto do ensino de regras morfológicas na escrita / The impact of teaching morphological rules in writing / El impacto de la enseñanza de reglas morfológicas en la escritura

Este estudo investiga a contribuição do ensino de regras morfológicas para a escrita de palavras e pseudopalavras. Participaram 111 (cento e onze) alunos do 4º ano fundamental de uma escola pública, separados em três grupos experimentais e um grupo de controle. Os estudantes foram submetidos a pré-teste e pós-teste (imediato e diferido) em medidas de controle e discriminação escrita. A intervenção trabalhou com o ensino explícito de regras abordando os seguintes elementos mórficos: "-esa"/"-eza" (morfologia derivacional), "-am"/"-ão" (morfologia flexional), "-iu"/"-il" (morfologia flexional e derivacional). Os resultados mostraram que a intervenção provocou um impacto específico no aumento de desempenho na escrita de palavras e, principalmente, na escrita de pseudopalavras, cuja grafia não pode ser acessada de informações lexicais. Os resultados corroboram os de outros estudos, confirmando o efeito positivo e duradouro do ensino explícito de regras morfológicas sobre a escrita de palavras complexas.

This study investigates how teaching morphological rules contributes to the writing of words and pseudo-words. A total of 111 students from the 4^th grade of a public school were assigned to three experimental groups and one control group. The students were submitted to pre- and post-tests (immediate and delayed) in control measures and word discrimination. The intervention addressed the explicit teaching of rules concerning the following morphological elements in Portuguese: "-esa"/"-eza" (derivational morphology), "-am"/"-ão" (inflectional morphology), "-iu"/"-il" (inflectional and derivational morphology). The results show that the intervention had a specific impact on improved performance in the spelling of words, especially pseudo-words, the spelling of which cannot be derived from lexical information. The results corroborate those reported by other studies, confirming the positive and lasting effect of explicitly teaching morphological rules for the spelling of complex words.

Este estudio investiga la contribución de la enseñanza de reglas morfológicas para la escritura de palabras y seudopalabras. Participaron 111 (ciento once) alumnos de 4º año de la enseñanza primaria de una escuela pública, separados en tres grupos experimentales y uno de control. Los estudiantes se sometieron a un pre-test y post-test (inmediato y diferido) en medidas de control y discriminación escrita. La intervención trabajó con la enseñanza explícita de reglas que abordan los siguientes elementos mórficos: "-esa"/"-eza" (morfología derivativa), "-am"/"-ao" (morfología flexiva), "-iu"/"-il" (morfología flexiva y derivativa). Los resultados mostraron que la intervención provocó un impacto específico en el aumento de desempeño en la escritura de palabras y, principalmente, en la escritura de pseudopalabras, cuya ortografía no puede ser accedida por informaciones de léxico. Los resultados corroboran los de otros estudios, confirmando el efecto positivo y duradero de la enseñanza explícita de reglas morfológicas sobre la escritura de palabras complejas.