Kenn Apel

The Spelling Sensitivity Score: Noting Developmental Changes in Spelling Knowledge

Spelling is a language skill supported by several linguistic knowledge sources, including phonemic, orthographic, and morphological knowledge. Typically, however, spelling assessment procedures do not capture the development and use of these linguistic knowledge sources. The purpose of this article is to describe a new assessment system, the Spelling Sensitivity Score (SSS), and then demonstrate initial evidence of its usefulness for detecting developmental changes in spelling knowledge. Two studies that examined spelling knowledge across an academic year in kindergarten, first-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students using the SSS and a traditional correct/incorrect scoring are reported. For all grades, the SSS system, unlike traditional scoring, was able to reveal specific increases in the children’s linguistic knowledge across time. Furthermore, for the kindergarten children, the SSS metric was more sensitive than traditional scoring for noting general and specific developmental changes across the year. Collectively, the SSS appears to be a viable tool for documenting changes in underlying linguistic knowledge that children apply to their spelling.

The Acquisition of Mental Orthographic Representations for Reading and Spelling Development

Word-level reading and spelling skills support reading comprehension and writing composition. Accurate and fluent word-level reading and spelling are facilitated when individuals have clear mental orthographic representations (MOR) that permit them to quickly recognize and recall the visual representation of a word, freeing up memory and attentional resources for comprehending or composing text. It is interesting that the role MOR development plays in early literacy development has received minimal attention. This article, based on a presentation at the 2007 Katharine G. Butler Symposium on Child Language, first reviews the literature that supports a sequential view of MOR acquisition followed by recent findings that support MOR development as a unique and independently developing skill. A general overview of three investigations designed to determine the independence and contribution of MOR development to children’s acquisition of word-level literacy skills is provided. Suggestions for further research and initial clinical implications are made based on the results of the investigations and the current literature on MOR development.

Morphological Awareness Intervention With Kindergarteners and First and Second Grade Students From Low SES Homes A Small Efficacy Study

We investigated the efficacy of a morphological awareness intervention on the morphological awareness and reading skills of students from low-socioeconomic-status homes; we also examined whether the intervention was similarly effective for intervention students who differed in their initial morphological awareness abilities. The 8-week intervention was designed to increase awareness of affixes and the relations between base words and their inflected and derived forms for kindergarteners (n = 27) and first- (n = 22) and second-grade (n = 26) students. Students randomly assigned to the small group intervention were provided instruction four times a week, 25 min a day, whereas students assigned to the control group received “business as usual.” Kindergarten and first- and second-grade students receiving the intervention showed statistically significant gains in morphological awareness with large effect sizes on most measures. Students in all three grades who received the intervention demonstrated nonsignificant gains in literacy abilities with null to small effect sizes. Further, students with low morphological awareness abilities at the onset of the study demonstrated similar gains from the intervention as their peers with typical morphological awareness abilities. Our results suggest that explicit morphological awareness instruction may produce gains of practical importance to young elementary students at risk for future literacy difficulties.

Linking Characteristics Discovered in Spelling Assessment to Intervention Goals and Methods.

This article presents two approaches to determining the goals and methods of instruction in spelling. One approach is to administer a standardized test, document the students grade-level performance, present lists of words at that grade level to the student, and then test his or her performance each week. The other approach is prescriptive and tailored in both assessment and treatment methods. A sample of words at the appropriate developmental level is elicited, and the students spellings for each sound are scored to identify the orthographic patterns that are not mastered. Next, the misspellings are analyzed to determine a likely cause for each. Omissions are classified as problems in phonemic awareness, illegal misspellings as difficulties in orthographic knowledge, and legal misspellings as deficiencies in storing mental graphemic representations. Finally, problems with juncture modifications or affixes are considered deficits in morphological knowledge. A case study illustrating treatment ramifications of each assessment approach is presented.

Effect of Assessment Task and Letter Writing Ability on Preschool Children's Spelling Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine whether spelling performance in preschool children varied as a function of the method of assessment and letter writing ability. The authors manipulated the motoric element and memory demands of the task by having children spell single words using letter tiles, orally, and by writing. The authors also assessed their letter writing abilities. The results of this study indicated that spelling performance did not vary by task once children could write approximately 19 letters adequately. That is, once children reached a certain threshold of orthographic knowledge, the type of assessment task did not impact spelling outcomes. Prior to reaching that threshold, tile spelling was superior to oral and written spelling and oral spelling was superior to written spelling. This study provides additional evidence for the contention that letter writing ability is an orthographic knowledge skill rather than a pure motoric ability and that this linguistic skill influences spelling outcomes.

Effects of a Multiple Linguistic and Prescriptive Approach to Spelling Instruction A Case Study

Current research in spelling development emphasizes specific linguistic factors that provide the foundation for spelling abilities. These factors are addressed in the case of a fifth-grade student with spelling difficulties. The student participated in a short-term intervention program focused on increasing spelling skills by incorporating multiple linguistic factors that underlie spelling development. Specifically, prescriptive assessment results led to an intervention plan targeting orthographic knowledge and phonemic awareness skills. The student demonstrated clinically significant improvement in spelling performance. Word-level reading ability also improved without direct reading instruction. Results of the case study suggest a multiple linguistic approach to spelling instruction may improve spelling and other literacy skills.

Acquisition of initial mental graphemic representations by children at risk for literacy development

We examined the acquisition of initial mental graphemic representations (MGRs) by 46 kindergarten children (mean age = 5 years, 9 months) at risk for literacy development because of low socioeconomic status. Using a storybook context, we exposed children to novel nonwords that varied in their phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities and then assessed the children’s development of initial MGRs through spelling and reading recognition tasks. The children developed some initial MGRs but less than past reports of children from middle socioeconomic status backgrounds. Children with more advanced word recognition abilities developed more initial MGRs than their peers with less advanced word recognition skills. Like previous reports, the words’ linguistic properties affected initial MGR acquisition and MGR acquisition ability predicted reading and spelling achievement above other known predictors. The results speak to the importance of increasing the print and orthographic knowledge of children at-risk for adequate literacy development.

Effect of modality on spelling words varying in linguistic demands.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which spelling accuracy is influenced by response modality. A spelling list consisting of 40 words that varied in linguistic complexity was administered to students in Grades 2 through 6. Each student completed three tasks: (a) a words-per-minute measure to determine keyboarding proficiency, (b) spelling a word list via handwriting, and (c) spelling a word list on a computer. Independent variables included response modality, linguistic complexity, and grade level. Dependent measures included the percent words spelled correctly. Keyboarding proficiency was included as a covariate. Modality rarely affected spelling accuracy, regardless of the linguistic complexity of the target words. These findings suggest that spelling knowledge draws on modality-free, lexical representations stored in long-term memory. Further, they suggest that computer-based instruments are a viable option for spelling assessment.

Narrative and Expository Writing of Adolescents With Language-Learning Disabilities A Pilot Study

We evaluated the narrative and expository writing samples of 12 adolescents with language-learning disabilities (LLD) in Grades 6 to 12 for elements of microstructure (e.g., productivity, grammatical complexity) and macrostructure (genre-specific text structure elements) using an experimental measure. Writing samples were elicited with genre-specific prompts via paper and pencil and transcribed according to Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) conventions. Wilcoxon signed ranks tests indicate that levels of productivity and grammatical complexity were significantly greater in the narrative genre than in the expository genre. However, participants’ writing samples demonstrated equally impoverished text structure for both genres. Positive correlations were found between microstructure and macrostructure performance. Findings confirm the effects of discourse genre on measures of microstructure and further elucidate the use of microstructure and macrostructure elements in the writing of adolescents with LLD. Future research, comprehensive writing assessment, and interventionists should consider direct measurement of both microstructure and macrostructure components across genres for this population.

Initial Mental Graphemic Representation Acquisition and Later Literacy Achievement in Children With Language Impairment: A Longitudinal Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between the ability to quickly acquire initial mental graphemic representations (MGRs) in kindergarten and fourth grade literacy skills in children with typical language (TL) and children with language impairment (LI). The study is a longitudinal extension of a study conducted by Wolter and Apel in which kindergarten children with LI and TL were administered early literacy measures as well as a novel written pseudoword task of MGR learning (spelling and identification of target pseudowords). In the current study (4 years later), the authors administered reading and spelling measures to 37 of the original 45 children (18 children with LI, 19 children with TL). The children with LI performed significantly lower than their peers with TL on all fourth grade literacy measures. For both groups, kindergarten initial MGR acquisition ability significantly related to fourth grade real-word reading and spelling. For the children with LI, kindergarten initial MGR acquisition ability also related to fourth grade pseudoword decoding and reading comprehension. Collectively, the findings suggest that initial MGR learning in kindergarten is an essential skill that may uniquely relate to later literacy abilities.