Implicit learning in children with spelling disability: evidence from artificial grammar learning

The development of reading and spelling skills seems to be influenced by both explicit and implicit learning processes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether children with spelling difficulties show a deficit in the implicit learning of frequent letter chunks. This was done by comparing the performance of children with good and poor spelling skills on an artificial grammar learning task. The results show that children with poor spelling skills have difficulties recognizing previously presented letter strings. Moreover, they show impaired implicit learning of frequent letter chunks, particularly in letter strings that can be processed phonologically. Comparing children's performance with chance performance revealed that poor spellers demonstrated some implicit learning, but a significant group difference showed that implicit learning was less efficient in poor spellers as compared to good spellers. These findings support the idea that implicit learning deficits play a role in the development of poor literacy skills.