An Exploration of Early Spelling in Kindergarten Children With Hearing Loss

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine if group differences exist in spelling accuracy or spelling errors between kindergarten children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing loss. Method Participants included 23 kindergarten children with hearing loss and 21 children with normal hearing. All children used spoken English as their primary language, and the children with hearing loss used amplification. Participants completed three single-word spelling assessments, a language assessment, and an oral reading assessment. Spelling was scored holistically and with two linguistic-based scoring systems. Results Children with hearing loss did not differ significantly from children with normal hearing in spelling accuracy or linguistic-based spelling error analyses. Conclusions The current study provides evidence that children with hearing loss in kindergarten do not differ significantly in their spelling errors compared to children with normal hearing, aside from a lower proportion of mental graphemic representation errors. With these data, in combination with previous research conducted, speech-language pathologists can further individualize treatment to focus on these specific error patterns. Additionally, this focus of treatment can help better prepare children with hearing loss for spelling and writing tasks in later grades. Future research should be conducted to determine when in elementary school the differences in spelling errors are initially seen.