Spelling deficits in dyslexia: evaluation of an orthographic spelling training

Orthographic spelling is a major difficulty in German-speaking children with dyslexia. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an orthographic spelling training in spelling-disabled students ( grade 5 and 6). In study 1, ten children ( treatment group) received 15 individually administered weekly intervention sessions (60 min each). A control group (n=4) did not receive any intervention. In study 2, orthographic spelling training was provided to a larger sample consisting of a treatment group (n=13) and a delayed treatment control group (n=14). The main criterion of spelling improvement was analyzed using an integrated dataset from both studies. Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that gains in spelling were significantly greater in the treatment group than in the control group. Statistical analyses also showed significant improvements in reading ( study 1) and in a measure of participants' knowledge of orthographic spelling rules ( study 2). The findings indicate that an orthographic spelling training enhances reading and spelling ability as well as orthographic knowledge in spelling-disabled children learning to spell a transparent language like German.