16:15 - 17:35 : Individual Papers - Teaching reading

Lead author	Rhona Stainthorp
Institution/organisation	University of Reading
Co-author(s)	Morag Stuart1, Daisy Powell2, Philip Quinlan3, Holly Garwood4
Institution(s)/organisations	1University of Reading, 2University of Roehampton, 3University of York, 4Birkbeck College, University of London
Title	Reading and rapid automatised naming: A complex relationship

Abstract

It has been known for over 30 years that there is a correlation between rapid automatised naming (RAN) and reading (Denckla & Rudel, 1974). RAN tasks are now routinely used in the identification and assessment of children with dyslexia. However, underlying causes of this relationship are not well understood. Recently, various explanatory accounts have been advanced: that both slow RAN and poor reading index an underlying problem in phonological processing (e.g. Wagner & Torgesen, 1987); that slow RAN is an index of general processing speed that also affects the development of reading skills (e.g. Kail et al., 1999); and that slow RAN indexes a deficit in non-phonological processes(e.g. Wolf & Bowers, 1999).

We report data investigating this relationship in two groups of children: one with a single RAN deficit but normal phonological awareness (PA); a second control group with normal RAN performance, and PA, verbal and nonverbal IQ matched to the low RAN group. We have addressed the issue of whether RAN is an index of a general processing speed deficit. Results from experiments investigating general speed of processing; speed of processing in both the visual and auditory modalities; and articulatory-motor speed showed that children with poor RAN performance differed from controls in visual but not auditory processing speed. These suggest that there may be a specific visual processing deficit on input. However, group differences were found in the articulatory-motor task indicating an output deficit. This lends weight to the conclusion that the relationship between RAN and reading is complex.

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Lead author	Jo Egan
Institution/organisation	Derbyshire Educational Psychology Services
Co-author(s)	Marie-Josephe Tainturier
Institution(s)/organisations	University of Wales, Bangor
Title	Why do dyslexic children have difficulties spelling the -ed verb ending?

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the origin of deficits in the spelling of past-tense verbs in dyslexia. Three groups of children (28 9-year old dyslexic, 28 chronological age-matched and 28 reading/spelling age-matched children) completed a spelling test that included uninflected nouns and verbs, irregular (e.g., "told") and regular past-tense verbs (e.g., "called") matched for frequency, length and final phonemes (i.e., /d/ or /t/). In addition, children were tested on their phoneme-grapheme conversion abilities (spelling nonsense words), orthographic memory (reading and spelling words with irregular PG mappings, e.g., "island"), phonological abilities (nonsense word repetition, digit span and phoneme deletion) and morphological awareness (sentence analogy, morphological judgement, and inflection of nonsense words). The main finding was that dyslexic children were poorer than both control groups in their spelling of regular past-tense verbs (-ed endings). However, the source of this deficit could not be identified as dyslexics were not poorer than reading/spelling age-matched children on any other measures. The second phase of the analyses focused on a subgroup of 5 dyslexic children with specific difficulties in spelling past-tense verbs in relation to good PG conversion abilities. These children were unimpaired as compared to both control groups in terms of phonological abilities and morphological awareness. However, their orthographic memory was impaired in (irregular word reading and spelling). We conclude that some dyslexic children would particularly benefit from teaching strategies that emphasise the links between grammar and spelling because they do not appear to have inherent morphological deficits.

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Lead author	Marie-Josephe Tainturier
Institution/organisation	Bangor University
Co-author(s)	Jo Egan
Institution(s)/organisations	Derbyshire Educational Psychology Services
Title	The acquisition of past-tense spelling in English: Rules or rote?

Abstract

This study investigates the time-course of the acquisition of the past-tense -ed marking in spelling. In Experiment 1, 177 6 to 14 year-old children (Years 2 to 9) spelled 3 matched lists of words in context: 10 regular past-tense verbs (e.g., called), 10 irregular past-tense verbs (e.g., told) and 10 non-verbs (e.g., bold). Consistent with Nunes, Bryant and Bindman (1997), spelling past-tense verbs was acquired in a stage-like manner. Year 2 children used a predominantly phonetic strategy (e.g., called-> cald), Year 4 children were close to ceiling and Year 3 showed an intermediary pattern including some over-generalisations (e.g., tolled, bolled). In Experiment 2, 269 6 to 14 year-old children spelled 30 pseudo-words that were used either as nouns ( the /neist/ is red, /neist) or verbs (e.g., he /neist/ his sweets, /neist/). If Year 4 children could spell regular verbs because they had mastered the -ed rule, then one would expect them to be able to apply this rule to new words producing answers such as "he naced" vs. "the naste". This was not the case; children did not start using context in spelling pseudo-words until age 12 (Year 7). This suggests that children's initial success in spelling -ed words is not so much based on an explicit awareness of morphological rules but rather on rote learning of whole-word spellings. Consistent with this interpretation, multiple regression analyses revealed that orthographic memory was a stronger predictor of the correct use of -ed in children aged 6 to 10 than morphological awareness.