| dc.description.abstract | This research investigated the consistency of children's
spelling errors across three grade levels, two to four,
five and six, and seven and eight. Diagnoses of children's
weaknesses in academic subjects are starting to incorporate
error analysis as a means of identifying and remediating
specific weaknesses. Research is necessary to see if
certain error types are normally consistent for children
over time, or with different grade and/or ability levels.
This research consisted of dictated word lists, repeated
five times over thirteen weeks. Errors were collected from
these samples and classified according to an expanded
Spache classification system covering twenty-one error
types. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was
conducted to assess the effects of time, grade level, sex
and ability on individual error types. While grade level
did show a significant effect, ability was by far a greater
factor in the number of phonetic and non phonetic vowel and
consonant substitutions. Results are discussed in light of
models of children's acquisition of spelling that take
developmental/maturational and/or information processing
factors into account. | |
