Phonological spelling errors among dyslexic children learning a transparent orthography: the case of Czech

Abstract

Substantial evidence from studies of English-speaking dyslexic children's spelling suggests that these individuals have a persistent impairment in representing the phonological structure and content of words in writing. In contrast, several studies of German dyslexic children (Landerl & Wimmer, 2000) suggest that, among learners of transparent orthographies, the above impairment is transient and resolves by the end of grade 2; instead dyslexic spelling is characterised by a persistent impairment in learning inconsistent spelling patterns. In order to determine whether phonological spelling difficulties are transient among dyslexic spellers of other transparent orthographies, we analysed phonological accuracy in the spellings of 43 dyslexic children, 43 age-matched control and 43 spelling-matched control children attending primary schools in Prague. Czech dyslexic children presented an interesting test case because Czech has a transparent orthography. Czech dyslexics as old as 11 years (grade 5) continued to produce high rates of phonologically inaccurate spellings relative to their age peers; thus their difficulties with phonological representation in spelling had not resolved. This pattern is consistent with findings from studies of English-speaking dyslexics, and it suggests that orthographic depth may impact less dramatically on the manifestation of dyslexia than has been proposed previously.