Poster Session #1: UC South Ballroom

Presentation Type

Poster

Faculty Mentor’s Full Name

Julie Wolter

Faculty Mentor’s Department

Communicative Sciences and Disorders

Abstract / Artist's Statement

Purpose. This study explores how the development of meaning (morphology), spelling patterns (orthography), and sound patterns (phonology) are related to literacy success in young elementary school children with and without language impairment. Significance. Young school-age children with language impairment (LI) are at risk for experiencing a literacy deficit (Catts, Adlof, Hogan & Weismer, 2005). The basic foundational skills required to read and write language are also those required to understand and produce spoken language. Phonological awareness is one language skill that is highly predictive of literacy success (Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001), however, it is not the only skill that affects reading and writing development. Recently, the language abilities of orthographic knowledge and morphological awareness were found related to literacy success in children with and without LI (e.g., Wolter & Apel, 2010; Wolter, Wood, & D’zatko, 2009). Orthographic knowledge refers to the ability to actively, store, and access complete letter patterns/representations of written words in memory. Morphological awareness can be defined as the conscious awareness of the meaningful units of words (e.g., base word / suffix). Thus, this research sought to determine whether these skills uniquely influence reading and spelling abilities in elementary children with and without LI and whether differences exist between these groups of children. Methodology. Children in kindergarten and 1st-grade with and without LI completed measures of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness as well as a battery of reading and writing tests. Statistical analyses revealed the children with LI performed significantly different than those with typical language on orthographic knowledge or morphological awareness measures. In addition, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness appeared to be related to reading and spelling in both groups of children. Future research and clinical implications will be discussed.

Category

Social Sciences

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Apr 28th, 11:00 AM Apr 28th, 12:00 PM

Metalinguistic Language Development and Literacy Success in First Grade Children with Language Impairment

UC South Ballroom

Purpose. This study explores how the development of meaning (morphology), spelling patterns (orthography), and sound patterns (phonology) are related to literacy success in young elementary school children with and without language impairment. Significance. Young school-age children with language impairment (LI) are at risk for experiencing a literacy deficit (Catts, Adlof, Hogan & Weismer, 2005). The basic foundational skills required to read and write language are also those required to understand and produce spoken language. Phonological awareness is one language skill that is highly predictive of literacy success (Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 2001), however, it is not the only skill that affects reading and writing development. Recently, the language abilities of orthographic knowledge and morphological awareness were found related to literacy success in children with and without LI (e.g., Wolter & Apel, 2010; Wolter, Wood, & D’zatko, 2009). Orthographic knowledge refers to the ability to actively, store, and access complete letter patterns/representations of written words in memory. Morphological awareness can be defined as the conscious awareness of the meaningful units of words (e.g., base word / suffix). Thus, this research sought to determine whether these skills uniquely influence reading and spelling abilities in elementary children with and without LI and whether differences exist between these groups of children. Methodology. Children in kindergarten and 1st-grade with and without LI completed measures of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness as well as a battery of reading and writing tests. Statistical analyses revealed the children with LI performed significantly different than those with typical language on orthographic knowledge or morphological awareness measures. In addition, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness appeared to be related to reading and spelling in both groups of children. Future research and clinical implications will be discussed.