Reading and spelling, phonological awareness, and working memory in children with severe speech impairments: A longitudinal study

A longitudinal study of reading and spelling abilities was conducted with seven school-aged children with severe speech impairments (SSIs) and normal intelligence. Their reading and spelling abilities were tested on two occasions: prior to starting school and after attending school for 3 to 4 years. The aim of the study was to follow the children's development of reading and spelling abilities and to examine more closely their phonological awareness and memory capacities, both visual and auditory, in order to identify the reasons for their documented difficulties in literacy acquisition. The children's memory capacities were judged to be of special importance in view of their difficulties in rehearsing subvocally and creating and maintaining a sound image. Over time, the children made some progress in reading. However, after 3 to 4 years of formal education, they still performed at very low levels on all literacy indicators—despite good phonological abilities—compared to a group of normally developing children with natural speech who were matched by sex, chronological age, and mental age. An analysis of the spelling errors of the children with SSIs indicated that they did not use their phonological abilities efficiently while spelling. The results are discussed in relation to problems of rehearsal in working memory.