The effects of a gamified morphological awareness intervention on students' cognitive, motivational and affective outcomes

Purpose Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study. Method Thirty second- and third-grade students with SSD and 30 with typical speech skills, matched on age and receptive vocabulary, completed four morphological awareness tasks and measures of receptive vocabulary, real-word reading, pseudoword reading, and word-level spelling. Results Results indicated there was no difference between the morphological awareness skills of students with and without SSD. Although morphological awareness was moderately to strongly related to the students' literacy skills, performance on the morphological awareness tasks contributed little to no additional variance to the children's real-word reading and spelling skills beyond what was accounted for by pseudoword reading. Conclusions Findings suggest that early elementary-age students with SSD may not present with concomitant morphological awareness difficulties and that the morphological awareness skills of these students may not play a unique role in their word-level literacy skills. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD are discussed.

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Forum: Morphological Awareness as a Key Factor in Language-Literacy Success for Academic Achievement

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/2020_lshss-20-00064 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 509-513

Author(s):

Ashley Bourque Meaux ◽

Julie A. Wolter ◽

Ginger G. Collins

Keyword(s):

Academic Achievement ◽

Academic Success ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Morphological Awareness ◽

Language And Literacy ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

School Based ◽

Literacy Success ◽

Key Factor ◽

Language And Literacy Development

Purpose This article introduces the Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Forum: Morphological Awareness as a Key Factor in Language-Literacy Success for Academic Achievement. The goal of this forum is to relate the influence morphological awareness (MA) has on overall language and literacy development with morphology acting as the “binding agent” between orthography, phonology, and semantics ( Perfetti, 2007 ) in assessment and intervention for school-aged children. Method This introduction provides a foundation for MA development and explores the influence MA has over the course of school-aged language and literacy development. Through summaries of the 11 articles in this forum, school-based speech-language pathologists will be able to convey the importance of MA to promote successful educational outcomes for kindergarten to adolescent students. The forum explores researcher-developed assessments used to help identify MA skill level in first- through eighth-grade students at risk for literacy failure to support instructional needs. The forum also provides school-based speech-language pathologists with details to design and implement MA interventions to support academic success for school-aged students with varying speech-language needs (e.g., dual language emersion, vocabulary development, reading comprehension) using various service delivery models (e.g., small group, classroom-based, intensive summer camps). Conclusion MA is effective in facilitating language and literacy development and as such can be an ideally focused on using multilinguistic approaches for assessment and intervention. The articles in this issue highlight the importance in assessment measures and intervention approaches that focus on students' MA to improve overall academic success in children of all ages and abilities.

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Overheard: Know Your Morphemes

ASHA Leader ◽

10.1044/leader.ov.18072013.16 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 16-17

Author(s):

Julie Wolter

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Literacy Development ◽

Morphological Awareness ◽

Early Language ◽

Online Chat ◽

Early Language Development

Julie Wolter, an expert in early language development, recently led an online chat about the contribution of morphological awareness to semantic understanding and literacy development. Here's what the Leader overheard ...

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Using Multilinguistic Strategies to Improve Decoding in Older School-Age Students in a Contextualized and Motivational Approach

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/persp2.sig1.105 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 105-112 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ginger Collins ◽

Julie A. Wolter

Keyword(s):

Struggling Readers ◽

Morphological Awareness ◽

Reading Acquisition ◽

Fourth Grade ◽

School Age ◽

Academic Vocabulary ◽

Motivation To Read ◽

Elementary Years

The multilinguistic skills of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness codevelop and appear to all be important for reading acquisition in the elementary years. By fourth grade, the academic vocabulary words to which students are exposed become more content-specific and frequently contain multiple morphological units. Struggling readers often lack motivation to read. The purpose of this article is to (a) review the evidence basis for providing multilinguistic instruction, and (b) provide a model for teaching multilinguistic strategies by using Latin and Greek roots within the context of creating superhero comics to promote decoding in an engaging manner.

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