Spelling Accuracy Research Articles

The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children.

In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle sufficient to read and spell most words. The present study aimed to investigate the role of morphology in the reading and spelling accuracy of Italian children as a function of school experience to determine whether morphological facilitation was present in children learning a transparent orthography. The reading and spelling performances of 15 third-grade and 15 fifth-grade typically developing children were analyzed. Children read aloud and spelled both low-frequency words and pseudowords. Low-frequency words were manipulated for the presence of morphological structure (morphemic words vs. non-derived words). Morphemic words could also vary for the frequency (high vs. low) of roots and suffixes. Pseudo-words were made up of either a real root and a real derivational suffix in a combination that does not exist in the Italian language or had no morphological constituents. Results showed that, in Italian, morphological information is a useful resource for both reading and spelling. Typically developing children benefitted from the presence of morphological structure when they read and spelled pseudowords; however, in processing low-frequency words, morphology facilitated reading but not spelling. These findings are discussed in terms of morpho-lexical access and successful cooperation between lexical and sublexical processes in reading and spelling.

Specific learning disabilities - from DSM-IV to DSM-5

The publication of the DSM-5 means changes in the classification and recommendations for diagnosis of specific learning disabilities. Dyslexia and dyscalculia have been reintroduced into the DSM. Three specific learning disorders - impairment in reading, impairment in the written expression, and impairment in mathematics, described by subskills - are now part of the DSM-5. Three subcomponents of the reading disorder are expressly differentiated: word reading accuracy, reading rate, and fluency and reading comprehension. Impaired subskills of the specific learning disorder with impairment in written expression are spelling accuracy, grammar and punctuation accuracy, and clarity and organization of written expression. Four subskills are found in the mathematics disorder: number sense, memorization of arithmetic facts, accurate or fluent calculation, and accurate math reasoning. Each impaired academic domain and subskill should be recorded. A description of the severity degree was also included. The diagnosis is based on a variety of methods, including medical history, clinical interview, school report, teacher evaluation, rating scales, and psychometric tests. The IQ discrepancy criterion was abandoned, though that of age or class discrepancy criterion was retained. The application of a discrepancy is recommended by 1 to 2.5 SD. All three specific developmental disorders are common (prevalence 5 %-15 %), occur early during the first years of formal schooling, and persist into adulthood.

Empirical models of scalp-EEG responses using non-concurrent intracranial responses

Objective. This study presents inter-subject models of scalp-recorded electroencephalographic (sEEG) event-related potentials (ERPs) using intracranially recorded ERPs from electrocorticography and stereotactic depth electrodes in the hippocampus, generally termed as intracranial EEG (iEEG). Approach. The participants were six patients with medically-intractable epilepsy that underwent temporary placement of intracranial electrode arrays to localize seizure foci. Participants performed one experimental session using a brain–computer interface matrix spelling paradigm controlled by sEEG prior to the iEEG electrode implantation, and one or more identical sessions controlled by iEEG after implantation. All participants were able to achieve excellent spelling accuracy using sEEG, four of the participants achieved roughly equivalent performance in the iEEG sessions, and all participants were significantly above chance accuracy for the iEEG sessions. The sERPs were modeled using a linear combination of iERPs using two different optimization criteria. Main results. The results indicate that sERPs can be accurately estimated from the iERPs for the patients that exhibited stable ERPs over the respective sessions, and that the transformed iERPs can be accurately classified with an sERP-derived classifier. Significance. The resulting models provide a new empirical representation of the formation and distribution of sERPs from underlying composite iERPs. These new insights provide a better understanding of ERP relationships and can potentially lead to the development of more robust signal processing methods for noninvasive EEG applications.

The Effect of Learning English (L2) on Learning of Arabic Literacy (L1) in the Primary School

This study investigated the effect of learning English (L2) on learning to read and spell connected texts accurately in Arabic (L1). The author selected a sample of 83 (38 males and 45 females; 45 bilinguals and 38 monolinguals) native Arabic-speaking fourth-graders in Egypt. Students completed the author-developed Oral Reading Accuracy Measure and Spelling Accuracy Measure. Interestingly, results revealed that the bilingual (Arabic-English) students performed better than their monolingual (Arabic) counterparts on the two literacy variables: oral reading accuracy (ORA) and spelling accuracy (SA). The discussion concludes that learning English (L2) has a positive effect on students’ oral reading accuracy and spelling accuracy in Arabic (L1).

A comparison of errorless and errorful therapies for dysgraphia after stroke

Despite the increasing significance of written communication, there is limited research into spelling therapy for adults with acquired dysgraphia. Existing studies have typically measured spelling accuracy as an outcome, although speed may also be important for functional writing. As spelling is relatively slow, effortful and prone to errors in people with dysgraphia, minimising errors within therapy could be a factor in therapy success. This within-participant case-series study investigated whether errorless and errorful therapies would differ in their effects on spelling speed and accuracy for four participants with acquired dysgraphia. Matched sets of words were treated with errorless or errorful therapy or left untreated. Results were collated one week and five weeks after therapy. Both therapy approaches were successful in improving spelling accuracy. For three participants, equivalent gains were demonstrated following errorless and errorful therapy. One participant made significantly greater improvements in spelling accuracy following errorless therapy. The effects were maintained five weeks later. There was no significant difference in post-therapy spelling speed between the two therapy conditions. The results of this study suggest that both errorful and errorless therapies can be effective methods with which to treat spelling in adults with acquired dysgraphia.

Influence of computerized sounding out on spelling performance for children who do and do not rely on AAC

Purpose: Spelling is an important skill for individuals who rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The purpose of this study was to investigate how computerized sounding out influenced spelling accuracy of pseudo-words. Computerized sounding out was defined as a word elongated, thus providing an opportunity for a child to hear all the sounds in the word at a slower rate. Methods: Seven children with cerebral palsy, four who use AAC and three who do not, participated in a single subject AB design. Results: The results of the study indicated that the use of computerized sounding out increased the phonologic accuracy of the pseudo-words produced by participants. Conclusion: The study provides preliminary evidence for the use of computerized sounding out during spelling tasks for children with cerebral palsy who do and do not use AAC. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.Implications for RehabilitationWe investigated how computerized sounding out influenced spelling accuracy of pseudowords for children with complex communication needs who did and did not use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).Results indicated that the use of computerized sounding out increased the phonologic accuracy of the pseudo-words by participants, suggesting that computerized sounding out might assist in more accurate spelling for children who use AAC.Future research is needed to determine how language and reading abilities influence the use of computerized sounding out with children who have a range of speech intelligibilityabilities and do and do not use AAC.

A one‐to‐one programme for at‐risk readers delivered by older adult volunteers

This paper is based on a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation of a reading programme delivered by older adult volunteers for at‐risk early readers. Wizards of Words (WoW) was targeted at socially disadvantaged children in first and second grade experiencing delays in reading but who were not eligible for formal literacy supports. The programme was effective for phonemic awareness, word recognition, phonic knowledge and children's self‐beliefs, but was not effective for reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling or reading accuracy. The programme was most effective for those children starting with ‘below average’ reading levels and for boys. Programme intensity, school attendance and the child's experience of the programme all predicted response to intervention. Gains in phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge may be explained by the priority given in volunteer training and in programme delivery to the phonics component, and gains in word recognition may be explained by its close association with phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge, as hypothesized by the Simple View of Reading. The findings show that a reading programme delivered by older adult volunteers can have a significant impact on reading skills and self‐beliefs of at‐risk readers who are not eligible for other formal literacy supports.

Examining the relationships between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder symptoms, and writing performance in Japanese second grade students

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder symptoms and writing performance in Japanese second grade students from regular classrooms. The second grade students (N=873) in Japanese public elementary schools participated in this study. We examined a variety of writing tasks, such as tracing, copying, handwriting (Hiragana and Katakana), and spelling (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji). We employed the Japanese version of the home form ADHD-rating scale (ADHD-RS) and the Japanese version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ-J) to assess the developmental characteristics of the participating children. Seven writing performance scores were submitted to a principal component analysis with a promax rotation, which yielded three composite scores (Spelling Accuracy, Tracing and Copying Accuracy, and Handwriting Fluency). A multiple regression analysis found that inattention predicted Spelling Accuracy and Handwriting Fluency and that hyperactive-impulsive predicted Handwriting Fluency. In addition, fine motor ability predicted Tracing and Copying Accuracy. The current study offered empirical evidence suggesting that developmental characteristics such as inattention and fine motor skill are related to writing difficulties in Japanese typical developing children.

A Unified Probabilistic Approach to Improve Spelling in an Event-Related Potential-Based Brain–Computer Interface

In recent years, in an attempt to maximize performance, machine learning approaches for event-related potential (ERP) spelling have become more and more complex. In this paper, we have taken a step back as we wanted to improve the performance without building an overly complex model, that cannot be used by the community. Our research resulted in a unified probabilistic model for ERP spelling, which is based on only three assumptions and incorporates language information. On top of that, the probabilistic nature of our classifier yields a natural dynamic stopping strategy. Furthermore, our method uses the same parameters across 25 subjects from three different datasets. We show that our classifier, when enhanced with language models and dynamic stopping, improves the spelling speed and accuracy drastically. Additionally, we would like to point out that as our model is entirely probabilistic, it can easily be used as the foundation for complex systems in future work. All our experiments are executed on publicly available datasets to allow for future comparison with similar techniques.

An Online Semi-supervised Brain–Computer Interface

Practical brain-computer interface (BCI) systems should require only low training effort for the user, and the algorithms used to classify the intent of the user should be computationally efficient. However, due to inter- and intra-subject variations in EEG signal, intermittent training/calibration is often unavoidable. In this paper, we present an online semi-supervised P300 BCI speller system. After a short initial training (around or less than 1 min in our experiments), the system is switched to a mode where the user can input characters through selective attention. In this mode, a self-training least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) classifier is gradually enhanced in back end with the unlabeled EEG data collected online after every character input. In this way, the classifier is gradually enhanced. Even though the user may experience some errors in input at the beginning due to the small initial training dataset, the accuracy approaches that of fully supervised method in a few minutes. The algorithm based on LS-SVM and its sequential update has low computational complexity; thus, it is suitable for online applications. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been validated through data analysis on BCI Competition III dataset II (P300 speller BCI data). The performance of the online system was evaluated through experimental results on eight healthy subjects, where all of them achieved the spelling accuracy of 85 % or above within an average online semi-supervised learning time of around 3 min.

The Effects of a Self-Monitoring Package on Homework Completion and Accuracy of Students with Disabilities in an Inclusive General Education Classroom

This study used a multiple baseline design across subjects to investigate the effects of a self-monitoring package on the math and spelling homework completion and accuracy rates of four fourth-grade students (two boys and two girls) with disabilities in an inclusive general education classroom. Throughout baseline and intervention, participants were assigned daily homework. During intervention, participants self-monitored in the evening at home and in the morning on the computer at school, and took part in a brief scripted, daily conference with the special education teacher to review the self-monitoring sheets. During the last two intervention phases, the conference was reduced to two and then one randomly selected day(s) per week, respectively. Maintenance data were taken over a 2–3-week period after the removal of the intervention. The self-monitoring package led to higher percentages of both math and spelling homework completion and accuracy during each phase of the intervention compared to baseline. These improved performances were maintained.

The double deficit hypothesis in the transparent Finnish orthography: a longitudinal study from kindergarten to Grade 2

We examined the double deficit hypothesis (Wolf & Bowers, 1999) and literacy development in a longitudinal dataset of 1,006 Finnish children who were nonreaders at school entry. A single phonological awareness (PA) deficit was a predictor of pseudoword spelling accuracy and reading fluency, and a single rapid automatized naming (RAN) deficit was a predictor of reading fluency. The group with both PA and RAN deficits experienced the most extensive reading and spelling difficulties. However, all groups included both poor and average Grade 2 readers and spellers. Poor letter knowledge and vocabulary, task avoidance, attention difficulties, hyperactivity, and lack of teaching at home were additional risk factors for reading and spelling problems, but their impact varied depending on the presence of PA and RAN deficits.

The Effects of Cover, Copy, and Compare on Spelling Accuracy with a Middle School Student with Learning Disabilities: A Case Report

Cover, Copy, Compare, Learning disabilities, Middle school, Single case design, Spelling The purpose of this research project was to examine the effects of employing the copy, cover and compare (CCC) method in spelling. The participant was a seventh grade male with learning disabilities. Dat a were gathered on his correct and error rate across various lessons in the studen t’s resource room classroom. An ABAB single case design was employed to evaluate the effects of CCC for both corrects and errors in spelling. The overall outco mes indicated a gradual increase in corrects and also gradual decreases in errors. This replicates much of the previous research with CCC. In the present cas e report, we were able to further replicate our work and those of Skinner and his colleagues. The CCC procedures were straight-forward to implement and dcollection fit into the daily classroom routine. The benefits of CCC are d iscussed.

The Effects of Direct Instruction Flashcards with Oral Sentence Creation on the Spelling Accuracy of Three Middle School Students with Disabilities

Flashcard, Spelling, Written communication, Extra practice, Moderate disabilities, Model, Lead, Test, Oral Sentence This study evaluated the effectiveness of direct instruction flashcards with oral supplemental sentence creation practice. The study was conducted over the course of eight weeks and evaluated the participants’ spelling performance. The three participants were selected for the study based upon their low spelling performance. All participants had a disability that affected their academic performance; this study correlated with a goal in the participants’ Individual Educational Plans. Therefore providing a link between the research and the goals for each participant in written communication. Baseline data were taken each week to determine the words that would enter intervention. The criterion for words to enter intervention was that three or more participants or students incorrectly spelled the word in baseline. Intervention began with participants and students chosen at random to identify the word and provide an original sentence. Following the oral sentence creation, the instructor would model of spelling the word, then the instructor lead the participants and students in spelling the word, and finally the participants and students spell the word independently. The intervention showed that this strategy was moderately effective. Participant 1’s average percent correct improved from 13% in baseline to 64% during DI flashcards and constructing sentences using the spelling words. Participant 2’s average correct improved from 0% percent in baseline to 27% during DI flashcards and requiring the students to create sentences from their spelling words. Participant 3’s average correct from 47% in baseline to 96% during intervention.

A portable auditory P300 brain–computer interface with directional cues

ObjectivesThe main objective of the current study was to implement and evaluate a P300 based brain–computer interface (BCI) speller that uses directional cues of auditory stimuli, which are presented over headphones. The interstimulus interval (ISI) was successively reduced to determine the optimal combination of speed and accuracy. The study further aimed at quantifying the differences in subjective workload between the auditory and the visual P300 spelling application. The influence of workload, mood and motivation on BCI performance and P300 amplitude was investigated. MethodsTwenty healthy participants performed auditory and visual spelling tasks in an EEG experiment with online feedback. ResultsSixteen of twenty participants performed at or above a level necessary for satisfactory communication (⩾70% spelling accuracy) with the auditory BCI. Average bit rates of up to 2.76bits/min (best subject 7.43bits/min) were achieved. A significantly higher workload was reported for the auditory speller compared to the visual paradigm. Motivation significantly influenced P300 amplitude at Pz in the auditory condition. ConclusionsThe results of the online study suggest that the proposed paradigm offers a means of communication for most healthy users. SignificanceThe described auditory BCI can serve as a communication channel for completely paralyzed patients.

Is weak oral language associated with poor spelling in school-age children with specific language impairment, dyslexia or both?

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that word reading accuracy, not oral language, is associated with spelling performance in school-age children. We compared fourth grade spelling accuracy in children with specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia or both (SLI/dyslexia) to their typically developing grade-matched peers. Results of the study revealed that children with SLI performed similarly to their typically developing peers on a single-word spelling task. Alternatively, those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia evidenced poor spelling accuracy. Errors made by both those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia were characterized by numerous phonologic, orthographic and semantic errors. Cumulative results support the hypothesis that word reading accuracy, not oral language, is associated with spelling performance in typically developing school-age children and their peers with SLI and dyslexia. Findings are provided as further support for the notion that SLI and dyslexia are distinct, yet co-morbid, developmental disorders.

Online detection of error-related potentials boosts the performance of mental typewriters

BackgroundIncreasing the communication speed of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) is a major aim of current BCI-research. The idea to automatically detect error-related potentials (ErrPs) in order to veto erroneous decisions of a BCI has been existing for more than one decade, but this approach was so far little investigated in online mode.MethodsIn our study with eleven participants, an ErrP detection mechanism was implemented in an electroencephalography (EEG) based gaze-independent visual speller.ResultsSingle-trial ErrPs were detected with a mean accuracy of 89.1% (AUC 0.90). The spelling speed was increased on average by 49.0% using ErrP detection. The improvement in spelling speed due to error detection was largest for participants with low spelling accuracy.ConclusionThe performance of BCIs can be increased by using an automatic error detection mechanism. The benefit for patients with motor disorders is potentially high since they often have rather low spelling accuracies compared to healthy people.

Objective and Subjective Evaluation of Online Error Correction during P300-Based Spelling

Error potentials (ErrP) are alterations of EEG traces following the subject’s perception of erroneous feedbacks. They provide a way to recognize misinterpreted commands in brain-computer interfaces (BCI). However, this has been evaluated online in only a couple of studies and mostly with very few subjects. In this study, we implemented a P300-based BCI, including not only online error detection but also, for the first time, automatic correction. We evaluated it in 16 healthy volunteers. Whenever an error was detected, a new decision was made based on the second best guess of a probabilistic classifier. At the group level, correction did neither improve nor deteriorate spelling accuracy. However, automatic correction yielded a higher bit rate than a respelling strategy. Furthermore, the fine examination of interindividual differences in the efficiency of error correction and spelling clearly distinguished between two groups who differed according to individual specificity in ErrP detection. The high specificity group had larger evoked responses and made fewer errors which were corrected more efficiently, yielding a 4% improvement in spelling accuracy and a higher bit rate. Altogether, our results suggest that the more the subject is engaged into the task, the more useful and well accepted the automatic error correction.

Motion-based ERP spellers in a covert attention paradigm

verview: There is evidence that visual brain–computer interfaces BCIs) using overt attention depend on eye movements, which imits their clinical applicability [1]. Besides, usual intensification ypes can be discomforting for the user. As a solution to these hortcomings, three spellers based onmotionVisual Evoked Potenials (mVEPs) were developed and evaluated in this online study. VEPs have favorable characteristics, i.e., low contrast and lumiance requirements, low variability, high amplitudes and localized patial distribution but are only recently employed as BCI input ignal [2]. Methods: Eleven participants operated three mVEP spellers: vert Motion Speller (OMS) (similar to [2]), Covert Motion Speller CMS) and Motion Center Speller (MCS). They differed in attention odes: overt (OMS) and covert (CMS, MCS), and locus of motion timulation: foveal (OMS, MCS) and peripheral (CMS). MVEPs were enerated either by small moving bars (OMS, CMS) or a central oving grid-pattern (MCS), and all spellers adopted a vocabulary f 30 symbols. Results: All participants successfully operated the spellers. nline spelling accuracies amounted to 97.5% for the Overt Motion peller, 71.7% in the Covert Motion Speller, and the Motion Cener Speller reached 92.4%. Spelling speed reached 2 characters/min. lassification in the OMSwasmainly based on N200, in the CMS on 300, and the MCS exploited both components. Conclusion: Themotion-inducedN2 component is not discrimnative when the stimulus is presented in the visual periphery. owever, a novel gaze-independent speller using stimulation at central location is able to exploit both N2 and P3 components uring classification.

Inflectional spelling deficits in developmental dyslexia

The goal of this study was to examine past-tense spelling deficits in developmental dyslexia and their relationship to phonological abilities, spoken morphological awareness and word specific orthographic memory. Three groups of children (28 9-year-old dyslexic, 28 chronological age-matched and 28 reading/spelling age-matched children) completed a battery of tests including spelling regularly inflected words (e.g., kissed) and matched one-morpheme words (e.g., wrist). They were also assessed on a range of tests of reading and spelling abilities and associated linguistic measures. Dyslexic children were impaired in relation to chronological age-matched controls on all measures. Furthermore, they were significantly poorer than younger reading and spelling age-matched controls at spelling inflected verbs, supporting the existence of a specific deficit in past-tense spelling in dyslexia. In addition to under-using the - ed spelling on inflected verbs, the dyslexic children were less likely to erroneously apply this spelling to one-morpheme words than younger controls. Dyslexics were also poorer than younger controls at using a consistent spelling for stems presented in isolation versus as part of an inflected word, indicating that they make less use of the morphological relations between words to support their spelling. In line with this interpretation, regression analyses revealed another qualitative difference between the spelling and reading age-matched group and the dyslexic group: while both spoken morphological awareness and orthographic word specific memory were significant predictors of the accuracy of past-tense spelling in the former group, only orthographic memory (irregular word reading and spelling) was a significant factor in the dyslexic group. Finally, we identified a subgroup of seven dyslexic children who were severely deficient in past-tense spelling. This subgroup was also significantly worse than other dyslexics and than younger controls on scores of orthographic memory. The implications of our findings for teaching and remediation strategies are discussed.