The acquisition of new orthographic representations among dyslexic children
B
INAMÉ
F
lorence
ab
, D
EFRAIGNE
A
urélie
b
& P
ONCELET
M
artine
b
a
Fund of Scientific Research FNRS, Belgium
bUniversity of Liège, Belgium
Some studies have shown that spelling is a powerful mechanism to acquire word-specific knowledge (for example, Ouellette et al., 2010). Nevertheless, the more efficient means to acquire and long-term maintain new orthographic representations do not have been much explored above all in dyslexic children.
Moreover, the effect of semantic information on the orthographic learning remains still unclear. The results from Nation et al. (2007) suggest that context play no role in orthographic learning whereas Ouellette et al. (2010) propose that semantics is a relevant factor for the acquisition of new orthographic representations.
Effect of group, condition and delay on orthographic learning performance
1. Significant effect of group : F (2,42) = 14,09; p<0,001 2. Significant effect of conditions : F (3,126) = 231,18; p<0,001 3. Significant effect of delay : F (1,42) = 305,84; p<0,001
4. No group x condition x delay interaction : F (6,126) = 0,94; p = 0,47
Planned comparisons
1. The performance of dyslexics and RAC is similar but both are significantly inferior to CAC.
2. The performance of each group is significantly higher in the spelling conditions relative to the reading ones. 3. The performance significantly decreases one week later relative to the immediate assessment.
4. a) Each group follows the same pattern of performance regarding conditions and assessments. b) Dyslexics and RAC benefit significantly from the semantic knowledge in the spelling condition when orthographic learning is assessed immediately.
To compare the ability of dyslexic and non-dyslexic children to acquire new orthographic representations through different orthographic learning conditions : reading versus spelling, each condition associated or not to a semantic representation.
• The orthographic learning capacities could depend of the reading level : dyslexics are inferior to children with a higher reading age but can reach a level equal to younger children with the same reading age.
• Children could not benefit from the semantic information to acquire new orthographic representations in texts because there are too many informations to process relative to isolated decoding for which the attention can be focused only on the letter-string process.
• It seems that an additional picture allowing a lexical association with the new written word can promote the integration of semantic and orthographic representations and enhance the orthographic learning.
Participants
15 dyslexics
• Mean chronological age : 11;4 • Mean reading age : 7;6 15 chronological age controls 15 reading age controls
Orthographic learning tasks
• Nation, K., Angell, P., & Castles, A. (2007). Orthographic learning via self-teaching in children learning to read English: Effects of exposure, durability, and context. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 96(1), 71-84. • Ouellette, G. (2010). Orthographic learning in learning to spell: The roles of semantics and type of practice.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107(1), 50-58.
Material
4 matched lists of 10 non words
40 non words consistent in reading and inconsistent in spelling
15 orthographic inconsistencies in each list
(frequency of sound–spelling correspondences < 25%)
Without semantic representation
1. Isolated non words decoding • Lexical decision task
• 10 non words presented 6 times
3. Spelling to dictation non words • Visual presentation of 10 non words • 6 dictations of the non words (Extra
presentation of each non word incorrectly spelled)
With semantic representation
2. Non words decoding in texts • Short text with 10 non words
including their meaning • 6 consecutive text readings aloud
4. Spelling to dictation non words with a picture associated
• Visual presentation of 10 non words and their picture
• 6 dictations of the non words (Extra presentation of non words incorrectly spelled)
Assessment : spelling to dictation task : 1) after each orthographic learning task : immediate assessment
2) after one week : delayed assessment
0 3 6 9 12 15 Lexical
decision Text Spelling Spelling andpicture
N um be r o f co rr ect o rt ho gr ap hic in co ns is te ncie s ( on 1 5) Conditions
Immediate assessment
0 3 6 9 12 15 Lexicaldecision Text Spelling Spelling andpicture
Conditions
Delayed assessment
RAC CAC D BINAMÉ FlorenceUniversity of Liege - Department of Psychology : Cognition and Behaviour Boulevard du Rectorat, B33, 4000 Liège - BELGIUM E-mail: [email protected]
