“If You Could Just Push a Button”: Two Fourth Grade Boys with Learning Disabilities Learn to Use a Computer Spelling Checker

Abstract

This study examines the value of a computer spelling checker as an editing tool for learning disabled writers with spelling difficulties. Two fourth-grade boys with spelling problems but different learner profiles and writing abilities learned to use the Bank Street Writer III word processing and spelling checker program to edit spelling errors—first with practice exercises and then in their own writing. Both boys learned to manage the spelling-checking process, increased the spelling accuracy of their edited texts, and enjoyed using a spelling checker. There were differences in their learning process and use of the tool, and limitations in the current technology influenced their editing performance (eg, neither student corrected any of the errors “missed” by the spelling checker; both students relied on a collaborative peer to help generate alternative spellings when the spelling checker did not offer the correction).