Browsing by Author "Wood, Clare"
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- ItemExploring the relationship between children's knowledge of text message abbreviations and school literacy outcomes.(2009-12-08) Plester, Beverly; Wood, Clare; Joshi, PujaThis paper presents a study of 88 British 10 12 year old children s knowledge of text message SMS abbreviations textisms and how it relates to their school literacy attainment As a measure of textism knowledge the children were asked to compose text messages they might write if they were in each of a set of scenarios Their text messages were coded for types of text abbreviations textisms used and the ratio of textisms to total words was calculated to indicate density of textism use The children also completed a short questionnaire about their mobile phone use The ratio of textisms to total words used was positively associated with word reading vocabulary and phonological awareness measures Moreover the children s textism use predicted word reading ability after controlling for individual differences in age short term memory vocabulary phonological awareness and how long they had owned a mobile phone The nature of the contribution that textism knowledge makes to children s word reading attainment is discussed in terms of the notion of increased exposure to print and Crystal s 2006a notion of ludic language use
- ItemA longitudinal study of children's text messaging and literacy development.(2011-07-14) Wood, Clare; Meachem, Sally; Bowyer, Samantha; Jackson, Emma; Tarczynski-Bowles, M Luisa; Plester, BeverlyRecent studies have shown evidence of positive concurrent relationships between children s use of text message abbreviations textisms and performance on standardized assessments of reading and spelling This study aimed to determine the direction of this association One hundred and nineteen children aged between 8 and 12 years were assessed on measures of general ability reading spelling rapid phonological retrieval and phonological awareness at the beginning and end of an academic year The children were also asked to provide a sample of the text messages that they sent over a 2 day period These messages were analyzed to determine the extent to which textisms were used It was found that textism use at the beginning of the academic year was able to predict unique variance in spelling performance at the end of the academic year after controlling for age verbal IQ phonological awareness and spelling ability at the beginning of the year When the analysis was reversed reading and spelling ability were unable to predict unique variance in textism usage These data suggest that there is some evidence of a causal contribution of textism usage to spelling performance in children aged 8 12 years However when the measure of rapid phonological retrieval rapid picture naming was controlled in the analysis the relationship between textism use and spelling ability just failed to reach statistical significance suggesting that phonological access skills may mediate some of the relationship between textism use and spelling performance
- ItemUse of text message abbreviations and literacy skills in children with dyslexia.(2011-01-17) Veater, Helen M; Plester, Beverly; Wood, ClareThis small scale study compared 10 to 13 year old dyslexic children s use of text message abbreviations with that of reading age and chronological age matched controls There were no significant differences in the proportion of textisms used between the dyslexic children and the two control groups although a preference for non phonetic text abbreviations was observed in the dyslexic group Unlike the controls there was little evidence of an association between phonological awareness and textism use in children with dyslexia These results are discussed in relation to strategy use by dyslexic children when decoding text