Children with spelling deficits demonstrate significant difficulty using inflectional morphology in their writing. This study investigated whether phonological deficits account for these pronounced difficulties or if they are more accurately explained by limitations in morphological or orthographic awareness. Twenty-six 11-13-year-old children with spelling deficits, 31 younger spelling-level-matched children, and 31 age-matched children were asked to spell a series of verbs with past tense and progressive markers in dictated sentences and in list form. Performance on spelling tasks was compared to performance on phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness tasks. Results suggest that children with spelling deficits have significant difficulty including inflections as well as spelling inflections and base words. Difficulty was most pronounced in a sentence context. Ability to spell inflectional forms was related to variation in morphological awareness in children with spelling deficits and to variation in orthographic awareness in spelling-level-matched children.

S pecific learning disability (SLD) has been a recognized type of disability for which students can be eligible for special education services since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act 89 Stat. 773, codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1400), the first federal special education law in 1975. The number of students classified with SLD grew steadily from 1975 until 2000 when they began to decline; they have dropped 14% since 2000 (Cortiella, 2011). Although it is beyond the scope of our study to provide a comprehensive literature review here, it is worth noting that the nature and diagnosis of SLD has been extensively researched and discussed for many years ( Johnson, Humphrey, Mellard, Woods, & Swanson, 2010). Recently the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) issued a report (Cortiella, 2011) which summarized current trends and initiatives related to supporting students with SLD. In addressing the decline in the numbers of students with SLD, the report identified three probable key factors: (a) improved understanding and application of effective beginning reading

This study was designed to simultaneously investigate the influence of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness skills on the ability to spell inflected verbs in structured spelling tasks. Children in grades 1, 2, and 3 (n=103) spelled inflected past and progressive tense verbs and completed awareness tasks. Developmental changes occurred in the ability to include the inflected ending, to spell the ending consistently reflecting the correct morphological unit, and to affix the ending using the correct orthographic pattern. The contributions of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness to spelling development varied across the three grades but were similar for each sub-component, suggesting a developmental relationship between the ability to spell inflected verbs and linguistic and orthographic awareness.

This study investigates how state Departments of Education address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students as they relate to the identification of students with a specific learning disability (SLD). A qualitative research design of directed content analysis was used to examine each state’s regulatory criteria for SLD, as well as state guidance documents on SLD, response to intervention, referral processes, and English Language Learners. States varied regarding the degree to which they provided legislation and/or guidance for practices of identifying SLD in CLD students. Findings were organized around four promising practices: (1) assessment, (2) personnel, (3) instruction and intervention, and (4) systemic integration of general education, special education, and English as a Second Language. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

This study was designed to examine the relative accuracy of parents’ estimations of the language skills of school-age children (ages 5-7) with and without language impairments. The parents of children with language impairments were more accurate estimators than the parents of normally developing children in terms of the correspondence of absolute ratings of language skills, but less accurate in terms of correlations of ratings with standardized test scores. Parent ratings were not significantly correlated with teacher ratings in either group. Definitions of accuracy of estimations and their implications are discussed in terms of the role of parents in the identification of children’s language needs, both for formal intervention and for day-to-day language stimulation.