Spelling success in students with SLD: The role of initial morphological awareness and vocabulary versus intervention strategies
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Vasiliki Kokkali
Department of Educational Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
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Konstantina Fragkouli
Department of Educational Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
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Faye Antoniou
Department of Educational Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece
Abstract
Teaching spelling is particularly challenging for children with, or at risk for, Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). The present study examined the effectiveness of a structured instructional intervention designed to improve spelling skills, vocabulary knowledge, and morphological awareness (MA) in Greek third-grade students receiving special education support. A pretest–intervention–posttest experimental design was implemented, with a total of 72 students randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 39) or a control group (n = 33). The four-week intervention was based on principles of Direct Instruction with systematic scaffolding and incorporated a modified version of the Morphological Processing Spelling Approach (MPSA). Standardized measures of spelling, MA and vocabulary knowledge were administered before and after the intervention to assess students’ progress. Results from repeated-measures ANOVAs showed that students in the experimental group demonstrated significantly greater improvement than those in the control group in text-level spelling, grammatical and historical spelling. Improvements in isolated word spelling were comparable across groups. Regression analyses further indicated that neither MA nor vocabulary knowledge predicted spelling performance at the baseline level. Overall, the findings provide strong support for the effectiveness of structured and direct instruction for enhancing spelling development among children at risk for or with SLD, highlighting its value regardless of their initial competence.
Copyright (c) 2026 Vasiliki Kokkali, Konstantina Fragkouli, Faye Antoniou
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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