ABSTRACT
Writing represents a special challenge for the dyslexic learner. Written-language achievements are contingent on phonemic awareness, which permits access to the orthographic code, but the dyslexic learner struggles with a core phonological processing deficit. Spelling problems, moreover, may be even more pronounced and persistent than reading issues. Both reading and spelling reference grapheme–phoneme correspondences, but retrieval of the full grapheme sequence for accurate spelling is more demanding than is grapheme recognition for reading. The dyslexic learner’s difficulties are compounded during the multilevel composition task. The dyslexic writer’s spelling and handwriting transcription skills are limited, as is the composition outcome; compromised handwriting fluency and composition skills can be attributed, however, to the dyslexic writer’s spelling challenge. Dysfluent spelling slows handwriting, reducing composition fluency; spelling issues also limit lexical diversity in writing and thus constrain composition quality. Under a writing model in which the lower-level transcription skills and self-regulatory functions serve higher-level composition processes, moreover, limited working-memory resources needed for transcription, executive-function, and composition processes are expended on spelling rather than on higher-level text-generation tasks. The prominence of the dyslexic writer’s spelling issues underscores the need for systematic, explicit, code-based spelling treatment that also addresses phonological processing skills.
