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Staying rooted: Spelling performance in children with dyslexia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2018

DERRICK C. BOURASSA ,
MEGHAN BARGEN ,
MELISSA DELMONTE  and
S. HÉLÈNE DEACON Open the ORCID record for S. HÉLÈNE DEACON [Opens in a new window]
DERRICK C. BOURASSA*
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg
MEGHAN BARGEN
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg
MELISSA DELMONTE
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg
S. HÉLÈNE DEACON
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Derrick Bourassa, Department of Psychology, University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3B 2E9 Canada. E-mail: d.bourassa@uwinnipeg.ca
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Abstract

Spelling is a key, and telling, component of children’s literacy development. An important aspect of spelling development lies in children’s sensitivity to morphological root constancy. This is the sensitivity to the fact that the spelling of roots typically remains constant across related words (e.g., sing in singing and singer). The present investigation examined the extent to which children with dyslexia and younger typically developing children are sensitive to this feature of the orthography. We did so with a spelling-level matched design (e.g., Bourassa & Treiman, 2008) and by further contrasting results with those for a sample of children of the same chronological age as the dyslexic group. Analyses revealed that the dyslexic children and their spelling-ability matched peers used the root constancy principle to a similar degree. However, neither group used this principle to its maximum extent; maximal use of root constancy did emerge for age matched peers. Overall, the findings support the idea that sensitivity to root constancy in children with dyslexia is characterized by delayed rather than atypical development.

Keywords

dyslexiainflectional and derivational morphologyspelling development
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 427 - 444
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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