Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography
IntroductionIn individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), efficient reading and writing skills promote social integration, self-autonomy, and independence. However, research has mainly focused on reading skills, while evidence on spelling skills is scarce and mostly on English-speaking subject...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1065525/full |
| _version_ | 1828062524652650496 |
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| author | Francesco Domenico Di Blasi Francesca Vizzi Maria Agatina Stimoli Serafino Buono Marika Iaia Pierluigi Zoccolotti Pierluigi Zoccolotti Paola Angelelli |
| author_facet | Francesco Domenico Di Blasi Francesca Vizzi Maria Agatina Stimoli Serafino Buono Marika Iaia Pierluigi Zoccolotti Pierluigi Zoccolotti Paola Angelelli |
| author_sort | Francesco Domenico Di Blasi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionIn individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), efficient reading and writing skills promote social integration, self-autonomy, and independence. However, research has mainly focused on reading skills, while evidence on spelling skills is scarce and mostly on English-speaking subjects. In the present research project, we compared the spelling skills of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) learning in Italian, a regular orthography, to those of typically developing children matched for school level.MethodsIn the first study, the performance on a Passage Dictation Test of forty-four children with ID attending regular classrooms from 4th to 8th grades (mean age = 12.16 years; SD = 1.57) were compared with controls matched for sex and grade. In the second study, a Words and Nonwords Dictation Test was administered (with stimuli varying for lexicality, orthographic complexity, regularity of transcription, and the presence of different types of phonetic-phonological difficulties) to twenty-two children with ID attending regular classrooms from 4th to 8th grades (mean age = 12.2 years; SD = 1.37) and 22 controls matched for sex and grade. In both studies, an error analysis was performed to characterize types of misspellings. Separate ANOVAs were performed on z scores.ResultsChildren with ID generally had a lower performance than controls. In the Passage Dictation Test, they showed a higher number of phonological (and phonetic-phonological) errors than phonologically plausible ones, indicating, as a group, predominant phonological difficulties as compared to lexical-orthographic ones. In the Words and Nonwords Dictation Test, they performed poorly on regular stimuli presenting specific types of phonetic-to-phonological difficulties (geminates, non-continuant consonants) and committed more minimal distance, context-sensitive and simple conversion misspellings. However, deficits in the orthographic-lexical procedure, as indicated by a low performance in words with unpredictable spelling, were present in a high percentage of children.DiscussionIt is concluded that children with ID have significant spelling difficulties not confined to the orthographic process but also in phoneme-to-grapheme mapping that, in a regular orthography like Italian, should be acquired early and easily. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:29:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0506307dc53a406abde03bca01bbfbed |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:29:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
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| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-0506307dc53a406abde03bca01bbfbed2023-01-17T06:22:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-01-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.10655251065525Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthographyFrancesco Domenico Di Blasi0Francesca Vizzi1Maria Agatina Stimoli2Serafino Buono3Marika Iaia4Pierluigi Zoccolotti5Pierluigi Zoccolotti6Paola Angelelli7Unit of Psychology, Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Troina, ItalyDepartment of Human and Social Sciences, Lab of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, ItalyUnit of Psychology, Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Troina, ItalyUnit of Psychology, Oasi Research Institute-IRCCS, Troina, ItalyDepartment of Human and Social Sciences, Lab of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, ItalyDepartment of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, ItalyNeuropsychology Unit, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, ItalyDepartment of Human and Social Sciences, Lab of Applied Psychology and Intervention, University of Salento, Lecce, ItalyIntroductionIn individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), efficient reading and writing skills promote social integration, self-autonomy, and independence. However, research has mainly focused on reading skills, while evidence on spelling skills is scarce and mostly on English-speaking subjects. In the present research project, we compared the spelling skills of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) learning in Italian, a regular orthography, to those of typically developing children matched for school level.MethodsIn the first study, the performance on a Passage Dictation Test of forty-four children with ID attending regular classrooms from 4th to 8th grades (mean age = 12.16 years; SD = 1.57) were compared with controls matched for sex and grade. In the second study, a Words and Nonwords Dictation Test was administered (with stimuli varying for lexicality, orthographic complexity, regularity of transcription, and the presence of different types of phonetic-phonological difficulties) to twenty-two children with ID attending regular classrooms from 4th to 8th grades (mean age = 12.2 years; SD = 1.37) and 22 controls matched for sex and grade. In both studies, an error analysis was performed to characterize types of misspellings. Separate ANOVAs were performed on z scores.ResultsChildren with ID generally had a lower performance than controls. In the Passage Dictation Test, they showed a higher number of phonological (and phonetic-phonological) errors than phonologically plausible ones, indicating, as a group, predominant phonological difficulties as compared to lexical-orthographic ones. In the Words and Nonwords Dictation Test, they performed poorly on regular stimuli presenting specific types of phonetic-to-phonological difficulties (geminates, non-continuant consonants) and committed more minimal distance, context-sensitive and simple conversion misspellings. However, deficits in the orthographic-lexical procedure, as indicated by a low performance in words with unpredictable spelling, were present in a high percentage of children.DiscussionIt is concluded that children with ID have significant spelling difficulties not confined to the orthographic process but also in phoneme-to-grapheme mapping that, in a regular orthography like Italian, should be acquired early and easily.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1065525/fullspelling processesspelling deficitserror analysisintellectual disabilityregular orthography |
| spellingShingle | Francesco Domenico Di Blasi Francesca Vizzi Maria Agatina Stimoli Serafino Buono Marika Iaia Pierluigi Zoccolotti Pierluigi Zoccolotti Paola Angelelli Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography Frontiers in Psychology spelling processes spelling deficits error analysis intellectual disability regular orthography |
| title | Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography |
| title_full | Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography |
| title_fullStr | Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography |
| title_short | Spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities: Evidence from a regular orthography |
| title_sort | spelling deficits in children with intellectual disabilities evidence from a regular orthography |
| topic | spelling processes spelling deficits error analysis intellectual disability regular orthography |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1065525/full |
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