Reading and Writing

, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp 107–125 | Cite as

Specific spelling disability: Factual or artifactual?

  • R. Malatesha Joshi
  • P. G. Aaron
Article

Abstract

The research reported in this paper attempted to find whether the so called “poor spellers who are good readers” are indeed good readers or if this impression is misleading. Three college students who appeared to be poor spellers but good readers were tested using a variety of techniques. It was found that the three subjects were indeed inefficient readers who committed numerous errors in reading function words, low frequency and unfamiliar words, and pronounceable nonwords. Not being proficient in the phonological conversion of print, these subjects depend excessively on an orthographic sight reading strategy which hinders accurate reading. There appears to be a trade off between speed and comprehension in reading and by slowing down considerably, the “poor spellers but good readers” attain an acceptable level of comprehension. It was concluded that reading aloud and spelling involve phonological mediation and, therefore, are not completely dissociable.

Key words

Developmental dyslexia Phoneme-Grapheme conversion Spelling Disability 
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Copyright information

© Kluwer Academic Publishers 1990

Authors and Affiliations

  • R. Malatesha Joshi
    • 1
  • P. G. Aaron
    • 2
  1. 1.Fayetteville State UniversityFayettevilleUSA
  2. 2.Indiana State UniversityTerre HauteUSA

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