Abstract
Background
The study aimed to explore to what extent variables associated with lexical and sublexical spelling processes predicted single word spelling ability and whether patterns of lexical and sublexical processes were different across ages.
Methods
Beginning (mean age 7 years, N = 144) and advanced (mean age 9 years, N = 114) English-speaking spellers completed tasks associated with sublexical processing (phonological ability and phonological short-term memory), lexical processing (visual short-term memory and visual attention span) and factors known to predict spelling (e.g., rapid automatised naming).
Results
Phonological ability, rapid automatised naming, visual short-term memory and visual attention span were significant predictors of spelling accuracy for beginning spellers, while for more advanced spellers, only visual attention span was a significant predictor.
Conclusions
The findings suggested that for beginning spellers, both lexical and sublexical processes are important for single word spelling, but with increasing literacy experience, lexically related variables are more important.
The study aimed to explore to what extent variables associated with lexical and sublexical spelling processes predicted single word spelling ability and whether patterns of lexical and sublexical processes were different across ages.
Methods
Beginning (mean age 7 years, N = 144) and advanced (mean age 9 years, N = 114) English-speaking spellers completed tasks associated with sublexical processing (phonological ability and phonological short-term memory), lexical processing (visual short-term memory and visual attention span) and factors known to predict spelling (e.g., rapid automatised naming).
Results
Phonological ability, rapid automatised naming, visual short-term memory and visual attention span were significant predictors of spelling accuracy for beginning spellers, while for more advanced spellers, only visual attention span was a significant predictor.
Conclusions
The findings suggested that for beginning spellers, both lexical and sublexical processes are important for single word spelling, but with increasing literacy experience, lexically related variables are more important.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 577-596 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of Research in Reading |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published (VoR) - 28 Sept 2020 |
Funding
The research was supported in part by a Central Research Fund Grant, European Scholarship, Onassis Foundation, Leventis Foundation and Wingate Scholarships awarded to the first author. The authors are grateful to Ravinder Johal for her help in data collection and to the teachers, parents and children of the participating schools.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| A.G. Leventis Foundation | |
| Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation |
Keywords
- phonological ability (PA)
- rapid automatised naming (RAN)
- spelling
- visual attention span processing (VAS)
- visual short-term memory (VSTM)