Spelling Interventions for Students With Disabilities: A Review

Abstract

This article reviews published research on spelling interventions designed for students with learning disabilities (LD) who are poor spellers. Thirty-eight spelling studies, including singlesubject and group designs, were located. Study interventions consisted of four types: instructional techniques, computer-assisted instruction, study strategies, and multisensory/modality training. These studies are discussed here with regard to subjects, methods, and findings. Conclusions and implications for spelling instruction and for future research are presented.Students with learning disabilities (LD) have lower achievement levels than their low-achieving nondisabled peers across all subject areas, but spelling ability is the most powerful discriminator between students with LD and other low achievers (Deshler, Schumaker, Alley, Warner, & Clark, 1982). Although spelling deficits are frequently identified during elementary school years, these deficits increase as students reach secondary education levels (Poplin, Gray, Larsen, Banikowski, 8c Mehring, 1980). One study documented a third-grade mean spelling score among seventh-grade adolescents with LD (Deshler, Schumaker, Alley, Warner, 8c Clark, 1982).Spelling is closely related to other subjects, particularly to reading (Beers, 1980). However, controversy exists between researchers who contend that spelling is a natural extension of reading and others (e.g., Chomsky, 1979) who argue that writing, a more concrete task, developmentally occurs first (see Vacca, Vacca, 8cGove, 1987, for a discussion). Nevertheless, agreement exists that spelling is a more difficult task than reading (Frith, 1980;Nelson, 1980); it requires production of an exact sequence of letters, offers no contextual clues, and requires greater numbers of grapheme-to-phoneme decisions.There are several possible reasons for the persistence of severe spelling deficits for students with LD. First, teacher preparation for spelling instruction may be overlooked, due to an overriding emphasis on the instruction of reading and mathematics. Second, minimal instructional time may be allocated to spelling due to beliefs that spelling is of secondary importance in today's extensive curriculum. Third, believing that students acquired these techniques in the primary grades, teachers may neglect instruction in effective spelling strategies. Address: Barbara Mushinski Fulk, Special Education Section, School of Education, LAEB, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.However, there are reasons to be optimistic about helping students with LD to learn to spell. First, the spelling skill of students with LD is similar developmentally to that of nondisabled students (Gerber, 1986). Second, cognitive strategies, such as those employed for spelling, are generalizable to other academic areas, particularly with training for transfer and teacher prompts (Deshler et al., 1983). Third, in 35 of the 38 spelling interventions presented in this review, explicit spelling instruction resulted in improved spelling performance.Given th...

Skill generalisation in teaching spelling to children with learning difficulties

“…A recent review of spelling and reading interventions came to the conclusion that generalisation is still underresearched (Wanzek et al, 2006). In Fulk and Stormont-Spurgin's (1995) review of spelling interventions for students with learning difficulties, only eight studies are referred to that actually investigated generalisation.…”

A Synthesis of Spelling and Reading Interventions and Their Effects on the Spelling Outcomes of Students With LD

“…The syntheses reported mixed results for studies examining multisensory spelling instructional techniques, although some support was described for strategies that included auditory components (e.g., write and say method; Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995;McNaughton et al, 1994). Gordon et al (1993) noted that many students with LD prefer the use of multisensory instructional techniques, such as the use of a keyboard for practicing spelling.…”

Teaching Children With Developmental Spelling Difficulties in a One-on-One Context

“…It seems that the feedback procedure is a very central part of a teaching program (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995;McNaughton et al, 1994;Wanzek et al, 2006). Useful feedback may involve pointing out the difference between the error and the correct spelling (Wanzek et al, 2006).…”