The effects of phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities on orthographic fast-mapping in kindergarten children with and without typical language abilities

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Issue Date
2006-05
Authors
Wolter, Julie Ann
Advisor
Apel, Kenn
Citation

Wolter, Julie Ann. The effects of phonotactic and orthotactic probabilities on orthographic fast-mapping in kindergarten children with and without typical language abilities.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the linguistic components of phonotactic and orthotactic probability affected children’s ability to fast-map orthographic information and whether orthographic processing explained unique variance on children’s literacy skills above and beyond that of phonological processing. Moreover, the current study examined whether kindergarten children with and without typical language abilities were differentially affected by linguistic processes on reading and spelling tasks. Fifty-six kindergarten children, 31 with typical language abilities and 25 with diagnosed language impairments, were exposed to novel nonwords through a computerized story format and asked to generate and identify these nonword spellings through a fast-mapping protocol. A battery of tasks also was administered which assessed the children’s phonological processing, rapid automatized naming, letter identification, vocabulary, reading, and spelling skills. The children fast-mapped orthographic information after minimal exposure to written words; children with typical language abilities performed significantly better on orthographic fast-mapping measures than children with language impairments. For all the children, more nonwords of high phonotactic and high orthotactic probability were fastmapped or generated, whereas more nonwords were identified in a low phonotactic probability condition. For children with typical language abilities, orthographic processing was found to explain unique variance above and beyond that explained by phonological processing on reading and spelling measures; for children with language impairments, neither phonological processing nor orthographic processing accounted for significant variance in their reading and spelling performance. The practical significance of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
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