Holger Juul

Knowledge of context sensitive spellings as a component of spelling competence: Evidence from Danish

Spelling performances in 104 Danish children from Grades 4 to 6 were compared across three levels of orthographic transparency. At the first level all spellings that were plausible at the level of the single phoneme were accepted. At the second level spellings were accepted only if they were plausible when the phonological context was considered (context sensitive spellings). At the third level word-specific spelling accuracy was required. There were 16 word items per level, matched for structure and frequency. Scores for context sensitive spellings were intermediate between scores at the phonemic level and the word-specific level, both for vowel and consonant spellings. Scores for context sensitive vowels and consonants were significantly interrelated even when performances at the phonemic and word-specific levels were controlled. The results demonstrate that Danish spellers beyond the initial phases of literacy development rely on phonological entities larger than the single phoneme. They extend similar findings from English in suggesting that knowledge of context sensitive spellings is a separate component of spelling competence.

Early Identification of Reading Difficulties: A Screening Strategy that Adjusts the Sensitivity to the Level of Prediction Accuracy

Early screening for reading difficulties before the onset of instruction is desirable because it allows intervention that is targeted at prevention rather than remediation of reading difficulties. However, early screening may be too inaccurate to effectively allocate resources to those who need them. The present study compared the accuracy of early screening before the onset of formal reading instruction with late screening six months into the first year of instruction. The study followed 164 Danish students from the end of Grade 0 to the end of Grade 2. Early screening included measures of phonemic awareness, rapid naming, letter knowledge, paired associate learning, and reading. Late screening included only reading. Results indicated that reading measures improved substantially as predictors over the first six months of Grade 1, to the point where late reading measures alone provided as much information as the early measures combined. In the light of these results and a less than perfect early screening accuracy, a new strategy for screening is introduced and discussed. The strategy proposes multi-point screening with gradually increasing sensitivity to strike a balance between manageable screening procedures and outcomes and early identification of students who are most likely in need of extra resources. Copyright

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.