Unexpected Findings--Text for Spelling Improvement! LOL!

             Recent findings by researchers who were investigating the impact of text messaging on children's spelling skills report that the more kids text, the better they are at spelling. This surprised me--a champion of the crucial role spelling plays in the brain for proficient reading and writing. I continually remind parents that spelling is important and needs to be taught explicitly in school. I'll continue to shout out: "Make sure you kid has a spelling book in his backpack! But now I'm adding --"Or spelling e-book lessons with technology!" Maybe I will start shouting "The more you text, the better you spell!"

            In a study to be published in the British Journal of Psychology later this year, researchers headed by Clare Wood in the psychology department at Coventry University in the U.K. studied 119 students from ages 8 to 11 who use cell phones and found that texting delivered positive results in spelling and reading performance.

            Now that I think of it, the study makes sense in light of normal spelling development. Once children have correct spelling representations in the word form area of the brain, it's easy for them to read abbreviated spellings such as Resrch Shos Yur Kidz Cn Text Their Wa to Spelling Suxcs! In fact, all young children who learn the complex English spelling system go through a developmental phase when they use abbreviated spellings before becoming proficient English readers. They may write GNYS at WRK, RUDF, and BRD for "genius at work," "are you deaf?" and "bird," respectively. In my view, as children move through developmental phases of learning to spell, they demonstrate the spelling brain's remarkable capacity to move from lower-level to higher-level strategies. 

            One theory of how the brain learns to spell called "overlapping wave theory" posits that just as bigger waves overpower smaller ones, more advanced spelling strategies overpower the early lower-level strategies. That is to say, once a child understands English spelling patterns they move beyond trying to spell a word such as interesting with a letter for each sound and spell it in chunks such as /in-ter-est-ing/. The move is from a lower level, letter-for-a-sound strategy, to a more advanced chunking strategy. Perhaps the move to text messaging with abbreviated spellings and tokens such as LOL and L8R is just another level of competency beyond correct spelling. As text messengers move into their teens, hopefully most will know not to use these abbreviated spellings in their college or job application. Knowing how to switch from informal to formal registers is called spelling consciousness, which should be part of the spelling curriculum taught in our schools. 

More Unexpected News--Give Your Preteen or Teenager an E-reader to Increase the Volume of Reading! 

            Publishers are reporting a surge in sales of young adult titles such as Dork Diaries and The Narnia Chronicles as a result of the large number of middle school age kids who received e-readers as gifts over the December 2010 holidays. One eleven year old, Eliana Litos, was pictured on the front page of the New York Times and had "the quote of the day" for February 5, 2011: "Some weeks I completely forgot about TV. I went two weeks with only watching one show, or no shows at all. I was just reading every day." She chose to unplug the TV, plug in the e-reader, and enjoy reading books! Unless kids are using an e-book reader app, sometimes they just need to turn off the smart phone, the computer, the ipad, the television, and other gadgets and read. 

More Questions than Answers 

            As the reading world embraces technology, change is fast but at present I suspect we have more questions than answers.

• Will the digital reading brain read differently?
• Is digital reading too quick and too easy to access deep levels of knowledge, understanding, and feelings?
• Will readers of the future multitask and skip from one thought to the other skimming the surface for efficiency but losing abilities of careful thought and reflection?
• Will the reading brain circuitry reorganize itself? 

Many questions remain unanswered.

Democratization of the Reading Brain 

     The history and development of the reading world is directly linked to a powerful vehicle--access. Access revolutionized reading from the time when the first messages were written in stone to the printing press and beyond. I believe digital reading has positive implications for the future of reading, including greater access, collaboration, democratization effects, and perhaps deeper comprehension. Here's one example, my new book for parents, Raising Confident Readers, is available as an e-book for downloading. A parent in a city half way around the world downloaded it seven days ago and we've been discussing its contents all week. We both have deepened our level of understanding.

(Note: Dr. Richard Gentry is the author of Raising Confident Readers. Available on Amazon.com. Follow Dr. Gentry on Facebook and on Twitter.)