Reading & writing Disorders: Week 6 -Spelling

What type of activities would be beneficial when children consistently omit letters?

letter sound correspondence (orthographic knowledge)

Mental graphemic representations (MGRs)

- the mental images of specific written words, or word parts (e.g., affixes), stored in the mental orthographic lexicon. -The common notion is that specific MGRs are formed when individuals are confronted with a novel written word (e.g., phulovbaloney) and must use their orthographic pattern knowledge of letter-sound correspondence (i.e., alphabetic principle) and their phonological knowledge (phonemic blending skills) to decode or sound out the word. -They allow individuals to spell (and read) words fluently, with little to no thought of the words' written representations.

Spelling related skills

-Auditory (e.g., phonemic awareness) -Visual (e.g., attending to words in print—orthographic pattern awareness) -Kinesthetic (e.g., tracing letters of a new word) -Multisensory approaches that integrate auditory, visual, & kinesthetic approaches -Developmental sequence of spelling to facilitate acquisition of conventional spelling skills -Memorization & testing of selected words in list format & in composition

Picture This (Wasowicz et al., 2004) approach for residual errors - ask child to picture the whole word

-Coach the child to picture the whole word and it's shape, etc -Then verbally spell the word forwards & backwards, the SLP can assign colors to the consonants & vowels -Test later if child can independently spell word forwards & backwards

Why is spelling important?

-Growth in spelling ability is correlated highly with growth in word- level reading, written composition, & reading comprehension skills -Spelling & word level reading both tap into phonological, orthographic & morphological knowledge. -Easy retrieval of a word while reading leads to better comprehension - this is related to spelling. Why better comprehension? • Also related to writing

Spelling intervention - MGRs

-Help students to visualize letter patterns by having them create colorful, meaning-based, word art. For example, in order to remember "yacht" your student may draw a shape of a boat with the "ht" leading up to the sail, and the "y" leading down to an anchor. Ask the student to close her eyes and make a "photograph" of how the word looks. If the student truly has a mental image of the whole word, she will be able to fluently spell it forwards or backwards. -Play with the words in a card game of "Go Fish," "Old Maid," or "Memory." This is especially helpful for kinesthetic learners.

Spelling intervention

-It is expected that spelling intervention have an impact on reading -SPELL-Links to Reading and Writing (Wasowicz, Apel, Masterson, & Whitney, 2004) - first helps students learn how to attend to the sound structure of spoken English words & then how to connect & combine sounds (phonology), letter patterns (orthography, mental orthographic images), & meanings (semantics, morphology) to read & spell words. -Educators may need to improve students' orthographic pattern knowledge for two reasons: • (1) students are omitting a letter(s) for a phoneme present in a word, or • (2) they are using an illegal or incorrect letter(s) to represent a phoneme. • The recommended intervention for OP is word sorts (Zutell, 1998) -Intervention focused on phonological knowledge is indicated when children consistently omit letters • Sound Strings are simply strings or cords knotted on each end with approximately eight bright, different-colored beads on them. Correct spellings are not the focus, but rather using a letter to represent each sound. -Word sorts can also be used for morphological awareness - Can use words that are either one or two morpheme words yet have final sounds that are identical (e.g., backed, fact, hiked, act). -Word pairs can be used to help students deduce rules that modify a base word when an affix is appended (e.g., hop-hopping vs. pack- packing). -Can also provide students with a set of "root words" and then ask them to make as many different words as possible by adding one or more prefixes or suffixes.

Spelling and Morphological knowledge

-Need to consider morphemic structure of a word & how adding morphemes can change the spelling: adding an extra 'p' when hop is in the past tense (hopped) -Need to be familiar with spelling of common prefixes & suffixes -Morphological knowledge allows people to spell a word for which an MGR does not exist -Allows correct spelling by understanding when affixes are removed, what the root word looks like, example: 'hopping'à'hop'

Spelling and semantic knowledge

-Semantic knowledge contributes to spelling when an individual consciously considers whether a word spelling accurately depicts the intended meaning. -The meaning & context dictate the spelling, pronunciation, & use of each word. Narratives & connected language are the only way to teach these nuances of spelling & language. -Read & discuss excepts from "Amelia Bedelia," "Dear Deer," or the "King who Rained." Ask students to explain the "mistakes," and write their own humorous narrative with homophones. -Regardless of the types of spelling words you are addressing, encourage your students to spell & write in sentences, paragraphs, and narratives.

Documenting progress

-Should come up with the target structures then write a probe word list that will not be used in treatment in order to assess response to treatment. -Can use the spelling sensitivity score (SSS) - Omitted elements are scored as 0, elements misspelled illegally are given 1 point, elements misspelled legally are given 2 points, and elements spelled correctly are awarded 3 points. -Can also do percent word correct

Spelling assessment

-Standardized test (Test of Written Spelling-4 (Larsen, Hammill, & Moats, 1999, Spelling Evaluation for Language and Literacy-22 (SPELL-2; Masterson, Apel, & Wasowicz, 2006) -Informal multilinguistic testing • (1) eliciting a sufficient sample of words, • (2) identifying orthographic patterns that are misspelled • (3) describing the nature of those spelling errors. -Should ensure that spelling is assessed in a hierarchical manner & best to use words from curriculum -Need to look closely at errors - try these, which is an orthographic pattern issue, which is phonological issue and which is ie. rn for 'rain', Ran for 'rain', Rane for 'rain', Hapy for 'happy', Pig for 'big', Gess for 'guess')

What resources are used in spelling?

-Students in kindergarten or first grade may rely more on their phonological & orthographic pattern knowledge when spelling words for which no word-specific mental graphemic representation (MGR) exists, but they can utilize their morphological knowledge in some cases. -Older students may tap more into their morphological knowledge when spelling words for which no MGR exists, partly due to the academic expectations to write (and read) more complex, multi- morphemic words.

Teaching spelling

-Teach children to spell words by sounding their letters one by one. Model the sounding & spelling process for children as they spell. -Begin with short words children can sound out, because these words follow regular spelling conventions, (e.g., cap, bat, and sit instead of cape, bait or sight). -Begin with simple words that do not contain consonant blends, (e.g., ham and pan instead of slam and plan) -Encourage students to use spelling knowledge & strategies regularly in their own writing. -Introduce spelling conventions systematically. Begin with words that exemplify the most frequent and basic conventions, & provide support & practice to help students generalize from these words to others. The goal is to help them see the spelling conventions in the words. -Use words in which letter-sound correspondences represent their most common sounds (e.g., get instead of gem).

Spelling and orthographic pattern knowledge

-This includes word specific memories (MGR-mental graphemic representation) -OPK-Understanding which letter sequences are both possible and plausible in English

Orthographic pattern knowledge

-letter-sound knowledge (i.e., knowing which letter or letters represent specific phonemes, such as using "c", "ck", "k", or "ch" for the /k/) and knowledge of allowable letter combinations (e.g., "dr" is an allowable letter combination; "jr" is not) -knowledge of principles governing spelling of base words or roots (e.g., long & short vowel patterns) -knowledge for positional constraints for letters (e.g., "ck" can be used in the medial or final position of words, but not the initial)

What are sound strings?

-simply strings or cords knotted on each end with approximately eight bright, different-colored beads on them. -Correct spellings are not the focus, but rather using a letter to represent each sound.

T/F Spelling isn't random. Spelling ability is associated with and supports other areas of literacy, including word-level and text-level reading and written composition.

True

T/F Students often have difficulty spelling specific structures such as clusters

True

Sounds in Motion

is an interventional program designed to develop listening skills in children, which in turn helps to improve articulation, & vocabulary skills, auditory memory, phonemic awareness & early literacy.

Traditional spelling instruction relies on?

memorization of spelling separate words one by one, OP, MA, PA focus on understanding the rules of spelling, thereby addressing the issues behind spelling errors

Once individuals segment words into individual phonemes, they then can apply what to represent those sounds?

orthographic and morphological knowledge

When spelling unknown words, what do individuals use to segment words into their individual phonemes?

phonological knowledge

Learning to spell also requires?

use of the word in meaningful contexts