LanguageBased Spelling Instruction for Children Who Are HardofHearing

1
Language-Based Spelling Instruction for Children
Who Are Hard-of-Hearing
Brittney Yakey, B.S., Eastern Illinois
University, Email blyakey_at_eiu.edu, Phone
217-581-2712 Rebecca M. Throneburg, Ph.D.,
CCC-SLP, Eastern Illinois University, Email
rmthroneburg_at_eiu.edu, Phone [phone] Lynn
Wilkerson, M.S., M.A., CCC-SLP/A, Eastern
Illinois University, Email lynnwilkerson_at_yahoo.co
m, Phone [phone]
Subjects

• Language Base of Spelling
• Spelling and reading share many of the same
  underlying linguistic skills and are similar in
  development. Spelling has also been found to be
  a good predictor of reading levels (Gough, Juel,
  Griffin, 1992 Ehri, 2000).
• Reading and spelling involve the use of
  phonological awareness, knowledge of orthography,
  vocabulary, morphology, and mental orthographic
  images of words (Wasowicz, Masterson, Apel,
  2003 Wasowicz, Apel, Masterson, Whitney,
  2004).
• Children who are prelingually deaf usually do not
  become successful readers and spellers. This is
  thought to be related to limited vocabulary, poor
  morphology knowledge, underdeveloped phonological
  awareness, and poor auditory mental images
  (Gibbs, 2004 Miller, 1997).
• Allman (2002) found that the spelling patterns of
  children who were hard-of-hearing were more
  similar to younger normally developing children
  than to the spelling patterns of deaf children.

• Discussion
• Summary of Results
• BF improved in all four spelling patterns
  targeted, whole words spelled correctly on the
  SPELL, and in reading and spelling on the WRAT.
• AH improved in two of the spelling patterns,
  remained the same on one, and decreased in one of
  the spelling patterns targeted. She decreased in
  whole words spelled correctly on the SPELL, and
  she decreased in reading and spelling on the
  WRAT.
• Explanation of Results
• The amount of motivation to improve spelling may
  have been a factor in the scores on the SPELL,
  WRAT, and Featured Inventories.
• AH had a more severe hearing loss and was younger
  which may also have influenced her performance.
• The hour long sessions may have been too long of
  a time period for the participants to maintain
  focus and motivation (especially for AH).
• Limitations
• Limitations included a lack of a control
  mechanism.
• A larger number of words tested per pattern would
  allow for a more sensitive measure.
• A longer period of instruction to allow for
  greater learning and carryover.
• Future Research
• Research is needed with normal hearing children
  individually and in large groups using the
  SPELL-Links to Reading and Writing program, as
  well as with children with language and reading
  delays.
• Spelling instruction over a longer time period
  would be recommended to allow more practice for
  participants.
• Research is also needed to compare other
  instructional spelling programs to SPELL-Links to
  Reading and Writing for normally developing
  children and children with other impairments.

Treatment Patterns Baselines and Posttest

• Stages of Spelling
• Researchers have classified the development of
  spelling into five stages (Ganske, 2000 Gunning,
  2006 Scott Masterson, 1996).
• Prephonemic stage
• Alphabetic stage
• Word pattern stage
• Syllabic stage
• Morphemic stage

Whole Words Spelled Correctly on SPELL Baselines
and Posttest

• SPELL Instructional Program
• Overview of the general SPELL-Links to Reading
  Writing program
• SPELL-Links to Reading Writing (Wasowicz et
  al., 2004) uses core components such as
  phonological awareness training and word level
  activities, as well as optional connected writing
  and timed reading activities to target over 70
  spelling patterns using different word study
  knowledge and teaches skills that are necessary
  for correct spelling of that pattern.
• SPELL components used in the current study
• Instruction was provided in two 1-hour lessons
  over five weeks during the summer (10 hours total
  spelling instruction).
• Four spelling patterns were targeted 1) short
  vowel u 2) ng 3) ck 4) final ch, tch.
• Lessons focused on core activities such as
  targeting sound-letter knowledge, sound
  discrimination, possible ways to spell sounds,
  and visual images of words.
• The optional timed reading activities were not
  completed after the lessons however, one of the
  five optional connected writing activities was
  completed after each lesson.
• The students were required to complete each of
  the core activities with 70-75 accuracy before
  advancing to the next activity.

• Spelling Instruction
• Scott and Brown (2001) described three general
  categories of spelling instruction memorizing
  weekly word lists, word analysis and word
  sorting, and spelling integrated in writing and
  reading.
• SPELL-Links to Reading Writing
• Spelling Performance Evaluation for Language and
  Literacy-Links to Reading Writing (SPELL) is a
  language-based instructional spelling program
  that also includes multisensory teaching
  components.
• It teaches critical word study skills through
  spelling, reading, and writing activities.
• Kellman and Apel (2004) used the SPELL-Links to
  Reading Writing instructional methods on a
  normal hearing 11-year-old girl with spelling
  difficulties.
• Apel, Masterson, and Hart (2004) also used
  instructional methods from the SPELL-Links to
  Reading Writing with one classroom and compared
  the results to a second classroom using
  traditional spelling instruction.
• Both studies found positive benefits from the
  SPELL-Links to Reading Writing program.
• SPELL-Links to Reading and Writing has not been
  researched with the hard-of-hearing population.

References Allman, T. M. (2002). Patterns of
spelling in young deaf and hard-of-hearing
students. American Annals of the Deaf,
147, 46-61. Apel, K., Masterson, J., Hart, P.
(2004). Integration of language components in
spelling Instruction that maximizes
students learning. In E. Silliman L. Wilkinson
(Eds.), Language and literacy learning
in schools (pp. 292-315). New York, NY The
Guilford Press. Ehri, L. (2000). Learning to
read and learning to spell Two sides of a coin.
Topics in Language Disorders, 20,
12-36. Ganske, K. (2000). Word journeys
assessment-guided phonics, spelling, and
vocabulary instruction. New York, NY The
Guilford Press. Gibbs, S. (2004). The skills in
reading shown by young children with permanent
and moderate hearing impairment.
Educational Research, 46, 18-27. Gough, P., Juel,
C., Griffin, P. (1992). Reading, spelling, and
the orthographic cipher. In P. Gough, L.
Ehri, R. Treiman (Eds.), Reading acquisition
(pp. 35-48). Hillsdale, NJ Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates. Gunning, T. G. (2006).
Assessing and correcting reading and writing
difficulties. Boston, MA Pearson
Education, Inc. Kelman, M. E., Apel, K.
(2004). Effects of a multiple linguistic and
prescriptive approach to spelling
instruction A case study. Communication
Disorders Quarterly, 25, 56-66. Miller, P.
(1997). The effect of communication mode on the
development of phonemic awareness in
prelingually deaf students. Journal of Speech,
Language, and Hearing Research, 40,
1151-1163. Scott, C. M., Brown, S. L. (2001).
Spelling and the speech-language pathologist
Theres more than meets the eye. Seminars
in Speech and Language, 22, 197-207. Scott, P.
T., Masterson, J. J. (1996). Assessment and
intervention for children with specific
spelling disabilities. Retrieved October 20,
2005, http//www.missouristate.edu/scd/facul
ty/jjm/research/ScotMas96.htm. Wasowicz, J.,
Masterson, J., Apel, K. (2003). Spelling
performance evaluation for language and
literacy. Evanston, IL Learning By Design,
Inc. Wasowicz, J., Apel, K., Masterson, J.,
Whitney, A. (2004). SPELL-Links to reading and
writing. Evanston, IL Learning By Design,
Inc.
WRAT Baselines and Posttest

• Measures
• SPELL computerized assessment
• Main test module uses 82 words.
• Pattern percent accuracy measured.
• Total number of whole words spelled
  correctly on the SPELL
• assessment.
• The Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) reading
  and spelling subtests.
• Reading and spelling subtests increase in
  complexity,
• Administration ceased after 10 consecutive
  errors.

• Purpose
• Purpose of current study was to evaluate the
  effectiveness of the SPELL-Links to Reading and
  Writing instructional language-based spelling
  program with two hard-of-hearing children between
  10 to 11 years of age.

BF AH