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Frontiers in Psychology
IntroductionSpelling is an essential foundation for reading and writing. However, many children l... more IntroductionSpelling is an essential foundation for reading and writing. However, many children leave school with spelling difficulties. By understanding the processes children use when they spell, we can intervene with appropriate instruction tailored to their needs.MethodsOur study aimed to identify key processes (lexical-semantic and phonological) by using a spelling assessment that distinguishes different printed letter strings/word types (regular and irregular words, and pseudowords). Misspellings in the test from 641 pupils in Reception Year to Year 6 were scored using alternatives to binary correct versus incorrect scoring systems. The measures looked at phonological plausibility, phoneme representations and letter distance. These have been used successfully in the past but not with a spelling test that distinguishes irregularly spelled words from regular words and pseudowords.ResultsThe findings suggest that children in primary school rely on both lexical-semantic and phonol...
Educational Psychology in Practice
The Journal of Educational Research, 2022
The association of phonological and lexical-semantic processes with spelling ability in children ... more The association of phonological and lexical-semantic processes with spelling ability in children has received scant research interest even though uncovering such associations can increase our understanding of literacy development. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 42 6- and 8t-year-old children in the southeast of Ireland. The children took part in tasks assessing reading, letter-sound knowledge, phonological ability, phonological short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming. They also completed an assessment of spelling ability involving regular words, irregular words, and pseudowords. Analyses revealed that, for both age groups, and for all three word types, spelling accuracy was strongly associated with phonological ability scores. In contrast, phonological short-term memory was found to be significantly associated with regular word and total word spelling for the younger group. For the older group, rapid automatized naming was associated with all word categories. Q...
Characteristics of written English (the presence of irregularly spelled words such as yacht, debt... more Characteristics of written English (the presence of irregularly spelled words such as yacht, debt, mortgage, for instance) allow the observation of whether children with reading difficulties are relying on phonic decoding or whole word lexical processes. The writing system in Greek is very transparent and this means that the distinction between regularly and irregularly spelled letter strings that exists for English is not present, and so it is not possible to capitalise on this feature. An alternative means for investigating reliance on different literacy processes is to look for semantic priming effects. We carried out a priming study employing visually presented primes and targets. Participants were Greek-speaking children with reading difficulties aged 9 to 11 years old and typically developing age-matched control children. There were four experimental conditions in which the relationship between prime and target differed: 1) same identity (where the prime and target were the sa...
Writing Systems Research, 2014
Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2013
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2012
The study investigated single-word spelling performance of 33 English- and 38 Greek-speaking mono... more The study investigated single-word spelling performance of 33 English- and 38 Greek-speaking monolingual children, and 46 English- and Greek-speaking bilingual children (age range from 6;7 to 10;1 years). The bilingual children were divided into two groups on the basis of their single-word reading and spelling performance in Greek. In line with predictions, we found that scores on an assessment of phonological awareness were a significant predictor of spelling in English for the bilingual children with stronger Greek literacy skill. Phonological awareness scores were also a strong predictor of spelling in Greek in the monolingual Greek-speaking children. For the bilingual children with weaker Greek literacy ability, spelling in English was predicted by performance in a test of visual memory. This was more in line with results for the monolingual English-speaking children, for whom spelling performance was predicted by visual memory and phonological awareness scores. Qualitative anal...
Experiential Psychology Society Online Conference 2020, Jul 1, 2020
This chapter reports a case study of a 10-year-old multilingual girl, NT, who exhibited spelling ... more This chapter reports a case study of a 10-year-old multilingual girl, NT, who exhibited spelling difficulties in spite of average reading ability in Greek and English. An intervention was conducted with the aim of improving NT’s spelling ability. The significance of the study derives from the fact that intervention case studies with multilingual students are rare (Bialystok 2007). Before introducing the investigations, we outline the theoretical framework, differences between the writing systems of Greek and English, potential reasons for spelling difficulties in children and some recent intervention case studies for spelling difficulties. The investigations and intervention were based on the dual route (DR) model of spelling (Barry 1994). DR models postulate that competent spellers use two procedures for spelling. One procedure is known as the lexical or whole word route, and can deal with familiar words that are either regularly spelled (e.g. mint, land) or irregularly spelled (e....
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Cognitive and Language Sciences, 2018
Frontiers in Psychology
IntroductionSpelling is an essential foundation for reading and writing. However, many children l... more IntroductionSpelling is an essential foundation for reading and writing. However, many children leave school with spelling difficulties. By understanding the processes children use when they spell, we can intervene with appropriate instruction tailored to their needs.MethodsOur study aimed to identify key processes (lexical-semantic and phonological) by using a spelling assessment that distinguishes different printed letter strings/word types (regular and irregular words, and pseudowords). Misspellings in the test from 641 pupils in Reception Year to Year 6 were scored using alternatives to binary correct versus incorrect scoring systems. The measures looked at phonological plausibility, phoneme representations and letter distance. These have been used successfully in the past but not with a spelling test that distinguishes irregularly spelled words from regular words and pseudowords.ResultsThe findings suggest that children in primary school rely on both lexical-semantic and phonol...
Educational Psychology in Practice
The Journal of Educational Research, 2022
The association of phonological and lexical-semantic processes with spelling ability in children ... more The association of phonological and lexical-semantic processes with spelling ability in children has received scant research interest even though uncovering such associations can increase our understanding of literacy development. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 42 6- and 8t-year-old children in the southeast of Ireland. The children took part in tasks assessing reading, letter-sound knowledge, phonological ability, phonological short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming. They also completed an assessment of spelling ability involving regular words, irregular words, and pseudowords. Analyses revealed that, for both age groups, and for all three word types, spelling accuracy was strongly associated with phonological ability scores. In contrast, phonological short-term memory was found to be significantly associated with regular word and total word spelling for the younger group. For the older group, rapid automatized naming was associated with all word categories. Q...
Characteristics of written English (the presence of irregularly spelled words such as yacht, debt... more Characteristics of written English (the presence of irregularly spelled words such as yacht, debt, mortgage, for instance) allow the observation of whether children with reading difficulties are relying on phonic decoding or whole word lexical processes. The writing system in Greek is very transparent and this means that the distinction between regularly and irregularly spelled letter strings that exists for English is not present, and so it is not possible to capitalise on this feature. An alternative means for investigating reliance on different literacy processes is to look for semantic priming effects. We carried out a priming study employing visually presented primes and targets. Participants were Greek-speaking children with reading difficulties aged 9 to 11 years old and typically developing age-matched control children. There were four experimental conditions in which the relationship between prime and target differed: 1) same identity (where the prime and target were the sa...
Writing Systems Research, 2014
Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2013
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2012
The study investigated single-word spelling performance of 33 English- and 38 Greek-speaking mono... more The study investigated single-word spelling performance of 33 English- and 38 Greek-speaking monolingual children, and 46 English- and Greek-speaking bilingual children (age range from 6;7 to 10;1 years). The bilingual children were divided into two groups on the basis of their single-word reading and spelling performance in Greek. In line with predictions, we found that scores on an assessment of phonological awareness were a significant predictor of spelling in English for the bilingual children with stronger Greek literacy skill. Phonological awareness scores were also a strong predictor of spelling in Greek in the monolingual Greek-speaking children. For the bilingual children with weaker Greek literacy ability, spelling in English was predicted by performance in a test of visual memory. This was more in line with results for the monolingual English-speaking children, for whom spelling performance was predicted by visual memory and phonological awareness scores. Qualitative anal...
Experiential Psychology Society Online Conference 2020, Jul 1, 2020
This chapter reports a case study of a 10-year-old multilingual girl, NT, who exhibited spelling ... more This chapter reports a case study of a 10-year-old multilingual girl, NT, who exhibited spelling difficulties in spite of average reading ability in Greek and English. An intervention was conducted with the aim of improving NT’s spelling ability. The significance of the study derives from the fact that intervention case studies with multilingual students are rare (Bialystok 2007). Before introducing the investigations, we outline the theoretical framework, differences between the writing systems of Greek and English, potential reasons for spelling difficulties in children and some recent intervention case studies for spelling difficulties. The investigations and intervention were based on the dual route (DR) model of spelling (Barry 1994). DR models postulate that competent spellers use two procedures for spelling. One procedure is known as the lexical or whole word route, and can deal with familiar words that are either regularly spelled (e.g. mint, land) or irregularly spelled (e....
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Cognitive and Language Sciences, 2018