Orthographic vs. phonologic syllables in handwriting production.
French children program the words they write syllable by syllable. We examined whether the syllable the children use to segment words is determined phonologically (i.e., is derived from speech production processes) or orthographically. Third, 4th and 5th graders wrote on a digitiser words that were mono-syllables phonologically (e.g. barque=[baRk]) but bi-syllables orthographically (e.g. barque=bar.que). These words were matched to words that were bi-syllables both phonologically and orthographically (e.g. balcon=[bal.kõ] and bal.con). The results on letter stroke duration and fluency yielded significant peaks at the syllable boundary for both types of words, indicating that the children use orthographic rather than phonological syllables as processing units to program the words they write.
Kandel
Sonia
S
Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition (CNRS UMR 5105), Université Pierre Mendès France, B.P. 47, 38040 Grenoble, Cedex 09, Grenoble, France. Sonia.Kandel@upmf-grenoble.fr
Hérault
Lucie
L
Grosjacques
Géraldine
G
Lambert
Eric
E
Fayol
Michel
M
D002648:Child; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*