Rf Larkin

Comparing phonological skills and spelling abilities in children with reading and language impairments

BACKGROUND Bishop and Snowling (2004) proposed that children with language impairments (LI) and children with reading difficulties (RD) can be considered to be on a (phonological) continuum of risk for reading impairments. AIMS The first aim of the present study was to address two specific hypotheses about the relationship between RD and LI. The severity hypothesis proposes that LI is a more severe form of RD. In contrast, the dyslexia-plus hypothesis proposes that children with LI share the same phonological deficit as children with RD, but also have impairments in non-phonological language skills. The second aim of the study was to further our understanding of the spelling skills of children with LI. METHODS & PROCEDURES Twenty-three children with primary language impairments (LI) and 22 children with primary reading impairments (RD) matched on chronological and reading age were compared with typically developing children. The childrens performance on tests of phoneme deletion, phonological memory, and spelling accuracy and phonetic spelling was compared. OUTCOMES & RESULTS Children with LI showed poorer phonological memory performance than children with RD and age controls, whereas both clinical groups performed significantly worse than the age controls on the phoneme deletion task and comparably to reading-age controls. Children with LI and RD were impaired for their age at phonetic spelling, the children with LI showing the more severe impairment. Further exploration of the data identified two different profiles among children with LI; some of these children had poorer phonological skills than predicted from receptive vocabulary, supporting the severity hypothesis. The other group showed a profile with concurrent impairments in vocabulary and phonological skills, in line with the dyslexia-plus hypothesis. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that a subgroup of children with LI may be experiencing a severe form of dyslexia. The results further suggest that children with LI have difficulty producing phonologically plausible spellings.

Written language skills in children with specific language impairment.

BACKGROUND Young children are often required to carry out writing tasks in an educational context. However, little is known about the patterns of writing skills that children with specific language impairment (CwSLI) have relative to their typically developing peers. AIMS To assess the written language skills of CwSLI and compare these with typically developing peers. It also aimed to assess the relative contributions of reading and spelling skills to written language skills. METHODS & PROCEDURES Forty-five children took part in the study: 15 were CwSLI, 15 were a chronological age match and 15 were a spelling age match. The children took part in a range of tasks that assessed writing, reading and spelling abilities. OUTCOMES & RESULTS In their written language and compared with typical age-matched peers, CwSLI used a significantly less diverse range of words, had lower quality written compositions overall, and lower levels of organization, unity and coherence. They also had a higher proportion of spelling errors. Overall, writing skills were strongly associated with reading skills. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The findings demonstrate the challenges CwSLI have in producing good-quality written text and that these challenges are likely to be related to the linguistic skills profile shown by these children.

Delay or deficit? Spelling processes in children with specific language impairment

UNLABELLED Few studies have explored the phonological, morphological and orthographic spellings skills of children with specific language impairment (SLI) simultaneously. Fifteen children with SLI (mean age=113.07 months, SD=8.61) completed language and spelling tasks alongside chronological-age controls and spelling-age controls. While the children with SLI showed a deficit in phonological spelling, they performed comparably to spelling-age controls on morphological spelling skills, and there were no differences between the three groups in producing orthographically legal spellings. The results also highlighted the potential importance of adequate non-word repetition skills in relation to effective spelling skills, and demonstrated that not all children with spoken language impairments show marked spelling difficulties. Findings are discussed in relation to theory, educational assessment and practice. LEARNING OUTCOMES As a result of this activity, readers will describe components of spoken language that predict childrens morphological and phonological spelling performance. As a result of this activity, readers will describe how the spelling skills of children with SLI compare to age-matched and spelling age-matched control children. Readers will be able to interpret the variability in spelling performance seen in children with SLI.

Morphological Spelling Development

Treiman and Cassar (1996) argued that young children are capable of assembling spellings from their constituent morphemes. The present study aims to replicate the methodology used by Treiman and colleagues to investigate whether young children in the UK are using morphological spelling strategies. Eighty-three children between five and nine years took part in the study. The children completed a test of single word reading, alongside a spelling test consisting of 16 one-morpheme words (e.g., taste) SYS:Font ID=NCI;and 16 two-morpheme words (e.g., raced).SYS:Font ID=NCI; The results provide no evidence that young children are using morphology to aid their spelling, and are discussed in relation to models of spelling development.

Assessing Teacher Opinion on the Inclusion of Children with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties into Mainstream School Classes

Abstract This study used a mixed methods approach to determine mainstream teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) considering the influence of age, experience, qualifications and the support they receive. The study further considered whether there was a link between attitudes and willingness to work with such children in mainstream classrooms whilst identifying the barriers to successful inclusion. A sample of 50 primary teachers (14 males; 36 females) volunteered to take part in the study. The results indicated that age, time in profession and support received were significant predictors of teacher attitudes, with time in the profession as the strongest predictor. Attitudes also had a significant effect on willingness to include when controlling for support received. Qualitative responses suggested teachers felt they lacked necessary training to include children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, and lack of consistent resources and support were commonly cited as barriers.

Brief report: the relationship between writing transcription skills and writing measures differs between children who self-report being monolingual or bilingual

This study explores how the skills involved in writing are associated with written language measures in children who self-reported being bilingual or monolingual. Twenty children were matched for age and gender and took part in a writing task and a series of tasks to measure writing transcription skills. The results found that there was no difference in writing measures for either group. There was a different pattern of significant associations between transcription skills and writing measures for the two groups. The results are discussed in terms of different ways in which a complex task like writing can be accomplished successfully.

Descriptive Writing in Primary School: How Useful Are Linguistic Predictors of Reading?

ABSTRACT Numerous linguistic factors predict childrens reading ability, yet it is unclear whether these same factors predict descriptive writing performance. A model of established single word reading predictors, namely phonological processing, automaticity, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge, was constructed. Children between the ages of 6 years 9 months and 10 years 7 months (N = 58) completed the linguistic measures alongside a picture-prompted prose-writing task. Quality of written content was scored based on 6 elements including ideas and generation and grammar and usage. Regression analyses confirmed the model as a strong predictor of word reading and a weaker but significant predictor of writing. Results are discussed in relation to the effects of instruction and experience on writing development and classroom implications.