The Effect of Morphological Training on Word Reading and Spelling of Iranian Dyslexic Children

There is little direct verification of a causal relation between dyslexic children's morphological knowledge and the progress that they make in reading. Here we report the results of two intervention studies which say learning to read depends on dyslexics being aware of morphology as well as of phonology. In the first study some children were taught about morphologically-based spelling rules and others about phonological rules. The morphological training had beneficial and non-specific effects on word reading that were similar to those obtained with phonological training. In spelling, morphological training had specific effects on the learning of morphological spelling rules. The second intervention study was with dyslexic children who had fallen behind in reading, some of whom were taught about morphology and spelling rules and others about phonological rules. Our intervention did not improve these children's reading, but we found evidence of specific effects on children's learning of morphological spelling rules.