Derivational morphology and spelling in dyslexia

Abstract

This exploratory study aimed to evaluate the spelling of derived words by dyslexic adolescents and to verify whether this is associated with lack of vocabulary and/ or morphological knowledge. A cross-sectional reading level-design was employed in order to determine differences in spelling, derivational morphology and vocabulary tasks between dyslexic students aged 13+ and age-matched and reading level matched control groups. The study confirmed a profound spelling impairment of dyslexic students in comparison with two control groups but this was not associated with poor vocabulary in relation with their age-peers. In contrast, they exhibited lower levels of morphological knowledge than age-matched controls but equivalent with the reading level controls. These results are interpreted in the light of current developmental models of spelling that support a reciprocal interaction between spelling and metamorphology.

Phonemic—Morphemic dissociation in university students with dyslexia: an index of reading compensation?

“…The results appear to depend on the kind of control group with which the dyslexics have been compared (chronological-age (CA) control or reading-level (RL) control) and the morphological awareness tasks used. Most studies have shown that children with dyslexia perform less well than their CA controls on morphological awareness tasks involving derivational morphology (Casalis, Colé, & Sopo, 2004;Casalis, Mathiot, Bécavin, & Colé, 2003;Tsesmeli & Seymour, 2006), especially when there is a phonological and/or orthographic change in the derived form (Fowler & Liberman, 1995;Leong, 1989). However, previous studies also report that children with dyslexia perform as well as RL controls in tasks involving the production of word derivations in a sentence context (Fowler & Liberman, 1995) or the production of derived, inflected and compound forms of pseudowords (Elbro, 1989).…”

Tutoring writing spelling skills within a web-based platform for children

“…It categorizes mistakes in order to offer specific feedback and hints for correcting the misspelled words. In doing so, the children should be encouraged to reflect and think about the language in order to become aware of the word structure [37] and consider these insights in their spelling.…”

Effects of Orthographic, Morphological and Semantic Overlap on Short-Term Memory for Words in Typical and Atypical Development

“…Children with dyslexia have been shown to perform below chronological-age-(CA-) matched peers on morphological awareness measures in many languages (Berthiaume & Daigle, 2014;Carlisle, 1987;Casalis et al, 2004;Duranovic, Tinjak, & Turbic-Hadzagic, 2014;Egan & Pring, 2004;Egan & Tainturier, 2011;Joanisse, Manis, Keating, & Seidenberg, 2000;Leong, 1999;McBride-Chang et al, 2008;McBride-Chang, Liu, Wong, Wong, & Shu, 2012;Shu, McBride-Chang, Wu, & Liu, 2006;Siegel, 2008;Tsesmeli & Seymour, 2006;Vogel, 1977). They have also been shown to use morphological processes (in reading and spelling) less than age-matched peers Carlisle, Stone, & Katz, 2001;Fisher, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1985;Hauerwas & Walker, 2003;Leong, 1989).…”

“…To examine whether children with dyslexia show atypical morphological processing given their level of literacy skills, a better comparison is against younger, reading-ability-matched peers. For the most part, children with dyslexia perform similarly to reading-ability-matched children on oral measures of morphological awareness (Casalis et al, 2004;Egan & Pring, 2004;Egan & Tainturier, 2011;Robertson, Joanisse, Desroches, & Terry, 2012;Tsesmeli & Seymour, 2006). However, the picture for morphological processing is less clear.…”

“…However, the picture for morphological processing is less clear. Some have found weaknesses in morphological spelling (Carlisle, 1987;Egan & Pring, 2004;Egan & Tainturier, 2011;Hauerwas & Walker, 2003;Tsesmeli & Seymour, 2006) whereas others have found no difference compared to ability matches (Bourassa, Treiman, & Kessler, 2006;. However, it is worth noting that very few studies have examined morphological processing in dyslexic children using a reading-ability-match design (Deacon et al, in press).…”