BDA International Conference 2016

Abstract: We know that most children with dyslexia show particular difficulties with processingspeech sounds (phonology). This project investigates how much children use information aboutthe internal structure of words (morphology) to compensate for these difficulties. Morphologyrefers to the parts of words that carry meaning, for example, the word ‘boys’ has twomorphemes – ‘boy’ and ‘s’, which indicates a plural.Knowledge of a word’s morphemes can help us to read and write unusual words such as ‘health’(which contains ‘heal’) and ‘sign’ (which shares a morpheme with signal and signature). It canalso act as a powerful vocabulary-learning tool. Some researchers have argued that children withdyslexia could use morphology to help overcome their weaknesses in phonology, while othershave argued that morphological awareness is a further weakness in dyslexia.I present a thorough investigation of both morphological awareness and use of morphologicalstrategies in literacy in children with dyslexia, asking to what extent children with dyslexia usethese strategies and whether those who do use them show better long-term progress.