The Nature of Written Language Deficits in Children With SLI

Abstract

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have associated difficulties in reading decoding and reading comprehension. To date, few research studies have examined the children's written language. The aim of the present study was to (a) evaluate the nature and extent of the children's difficulties with writing and (b) investigate the relationship between oral and written language. Eleven children with SLI were identified (mean age = 11 years) and were compared with a group of children matched for chronological age (CA; mean age = 11;2 [years;months]) and language age (LA; mean CA = 7;3). All groups completed standardized measures of language production, writing, and reading decoding. The writing assessment revealed that the SLI group wrote fewer words and produced proportionately more syntax errors than the CA group, but they did not differ on a measure of content of written language or on the proportion of spelling errors. The SLI group also produced proportionately more syntax errors than the LA group. The relationships among oral language, reading, and writing differed for the 3 groups. The nature and extent of the children's written language problems are considered in the context of difficulties with spoken language.

Component processes of early reading, spelling, and narrative writing skills in Turkish: a longitudinal study

“…For instance, several studies have failed to find any reliable relationship between children's grammatical skills (or oral language skills) and the structural quality of their written compositions (Berninger, et al, 1992;Griffin, Hemphill, Camp, & Wolf, 2004;Mackie & Dockrell, 2004). Likewise, some studies have failed to find any reliable relationships between children's writing fluency and writing quality (Fey, et al, 2004).…”

“…This may partly suggest that other processes were influencing children's spelling performance whilst composing text. Children can clearly be more selective and choose words that they know and can spell well (see Mackie & Dockrell, 2004). They may also make spelling mistakes because of limitations in information processing or attentional resources.…”

Examining the transcription-writing link: Effects of handwriting fluency and spelling accuracy on writing performance via planning and translating in middle grades

“…In the sentence-combining task, students were given a pre-determined set of sentences and had a narrow range of options to correctly combine them (Berninger et al, 2011;Strong, 1986). Spelling accuracy was assessed in the context of writing, in the opinion essays with and without planning Limpo & Alves, 2013a;Mackie & Dockrell, 2004;Nelson & van Meter, 2007;Wagner et al, 2011). The opinion essay without planning was only used to extract writing performance measures, excepting one of the spelling measures.…”

“…This spelling measure has been used extensively in prior research with good evidence for validity Limpo & Alves, 2013a;Mackie & Dockrell, 2004;Nelson & van Meter, 2007;Wagner et al, 2011). Additionally, other studies have found that spelling in text is moderately correlated with spelling-to-dictation measures (Graham et al, 1997;Limpo & Alves, 2013a).…”

Narrations écrites et orthographe chez les enfants et adolescents dysphasiques : Pourquoi les erreurs morphologiques augmentent-elles avec l’âge ?

“…De même, Mackie et Dockrell (2004) ont montré que les participants dysphasiques de 11 ans produisent plus d'omissions de flexions verbales sur les personnes (le « s » de la troisième personne du singulier) et sur les temps (« ing » et « ed ») que les participants typiques du même âge. Par ailleurs, les recherches déjà menées à l'écrit n'abordent jamais la question des différentes catégories d'erreurs d'orthographe lexicale (Bishop, & Clarkson, 2003 ;Dockrell, Lindsay, & Connelly, 2007 ;2009 ;Fey, Catts, Proctor-Williams, Tomblin, & Zhang, 2004 ;Mackie, & Dockrell, 2004 ;Windsor, Scott, & Street, 2000).…”