Exposure to “Textisms” Does Not Lower Spelling Scores for Elementary School Aged Children

“Textisms” are semi-standardized abbreviations and conventions uses in SMS text messaging. Students in the fourth and fifth grades (N = 136) were expos ed to words on a spelling list as correctly-spelled words, incorrectly-spelled words, or “textisms” to determine whether short term exposure to “textisms” decreased spelling performance for elementary aged children. Multivariate ANOVA found exposure type significantly impacted post-exposure spelling, F(3,132) = 5.483, p<0.001. Individual t-tests for ea ch group found exposure to correctly spelled words sig nificantly improved spelling ability on spelling posttest, t(35) = 5.399, p<0.0001, unlike exposure to incorrec tly spelled words, t(29) = -1.96, p<0.060. Textisms similar to traditional English spellings s howed almost no change in spelling ability, t(28) = 0.064, p<0.950, exposure to non-traditional orthogr aphic forms showed a slight decrease from pretest t o posttest, t(40) = 1.39, p<0.172. Difference in posttest scores between participants in the two textism groups suggests that children may derive orthograph ic information from some textism forms, but do not decrease spelling abilities because of limited expo sure to textisms.