title: Morphology and spelling in French students with dyslexia: the case of silent final letters.
abstract: Spelling is a challenge for individuals with dyslexia. Phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence rules are highly inconsistent in French, which make them very difficult to master, in particular for dyslexics. One recurrent manifestation of this inconsistency is the presence of silent letters at the end of words. Many of these silent letters perform a morphological function. The current study examined whether students with dyslexia (aged between 10 and 15 years) benefit from the morphological status of silent final letters when spelling. We compared, their ability to spell words with silent final letters that are either morphologically justified (e.g., tricot, "knit," where the final "t" is pronounced in morphologically related words such as tricoter, "to knit" and tricoteur "knitter") or not morphologically justified (e.g., effort, "effort") to that of a group of younger children matched for reading and spelling level. Results indicated that the dyslexic students' spelling of silent final letters was impaired in comparison to the control group. Interestingly, morphological status helped the dyslexics improve the accuracy of their choice of final letters, contrary to the control group. This finding provides new evidence of morphological processing in dyslexia during spelling.
authors.affiliation: Université de Poitiers, Université de Tours & CNRS, Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage (CeRCA), UMR CNRS 7295, Maison des sciences de l'homme et de la société (MSHS), 5 rue Théodore Lefebvre, TSA 21103, F-86073, Poitiers, CEDEX 9, France. pauline.quemart@univ-poitiers.fr.
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quémart
authors.affiliation: SCAlab, Université de Lille & CNRS, Sciences Cognitives & Sciences Affectives Lab (SCALab), UMR CNRS 9193, Université Charlesde-Gaulle Lille III, Domaine universitaire du Pont de Bois, BP 60149, 59653, Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Séverine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Casalis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Dyslexia; Morphology; Silent letters; Spelling