Orthographic Processing Skills Flashcards

A student writes 'becuase' instead of 'because'. Which orthographic skill is most directly impaired?

Answer: Sequential letter order memory

Sequential letter order memory allows writers to recall the precise sequence of letters within a word, and misordering internal letters indicates a deficit in this skill.

Which of the following tasks most directly assesses orthographic pattern recognition?

Answer: Identifying which of two spellings looks correct

Choosing the correctly spelled word from alternatives requires recognizing stored visual-orthographic patterns without relying solely on phonics.

On the WIAT, orthographic processing tasks differ from phonological tasks primarily because orthographic tasks emphasize:

Answer: Visual memory for letter sequences

Orthographic processing centers on visual memory for the exact spelling patterns and letter sequences stored in the mental lexicon.

A child can decode 'knight' correctly when reading but consistently spells it 'nite.' This pattern best reflects:

Answer: Poor orthographic lexicon with adequate phonological skills

Spelling 'nite' is phonetically plausible but orthographically incorrect, showing intact sound-based skills but a weak stored visual representation of the word.

Which spelling error type is most characteristic of an orthographic processing deficit rather than a phonological deficit?

Answer: Writing 'frend' for 'friend'

'Frend' omits the silent letter 'i' that is not phonetically predictable, indicating failure to store the complete orthographic pattern rather than a phonological error.

Orthographic mapping, as described by Ehri, refers to the process by which readers:

Answer: Form permanent connections between letter sequences and pronunciations in memory

Orthographic mapping is the bonding of a word's spelling to its pronunciation and meaning in long-term memory, enabling instant word recognition.

Which instructional approach most directly targets orthographic processing deficits identified on the WIAT?

Answer: Word sorting and word study focusing on visual spelling patterns

Word sorting by orthographic patterns builds the visual letter-sequence knowledge that is the core deficit in orthographic processing difficulties.

A student reads fluently but scores poorly on a WIAT spelling subtest. The most likely explanation is:

Answer: Phonological awareness is stronger than orthographic output skills

Reading can rely on partial orthographic cues and context, while accurate spelling demands complete retrieval of stored letter sequences, so a dissociation is possible.

Which of the following best describes an 'orthographic lexicon'?

Answer: A stored inventory of the visual-letter patterns of known words

The orthographic lexicon is the component of the language system that holds memorized visual representations of whole-word spellings.

When a student misspells 'separate' as 'seperate,' this error most likely reflects:

Answer: Failure to store the correct vowel pattern orthographically

Both vowels sound similar in speech, so the error reflects an incomplete orthographic representation rather than a phonological confusion.

On a pseudoword spelling task, a student who scores poorly but performs well spelling real words likely has:

Answer: Weak phonological recoding with strong orthographic knowledge

Pseudoword spelling demands phonological recoding because no stored orthographic form exists, so poor pseudoword performance with intact real-word spelling indicates reliance on the orthographic lexicon.

The WIAT assesses orthographic processing partly through tasks that require a student to identify:

Answer: The correctly spelled word among foils that are phonetically similar

Choosing the correctly spelled word from phonetically equivalent alternatives measures the quality of the stored orthographic representation.

A child spells 'station' as 'stashun.' This type of error is best described as:

Answer: Phonologically plausible but orthographically incorrect

'Stashun' accurately represents the sounds of the word but does not reflect knowledge of the conventional spelling patterns, indicating an orthographic deficit.

Which factor most strongly predicts growth in orthographic knowledge over the elementary school years?

Answer: Amount of print exposure through reading

Extensive reading provides repeated encounters with written words that gradually consolidate orthographic representations in long-term memory.

Which scenario best illustrates strong orthographic processing ability?

Answer: A student instantly recognizes 'yacht' without decoding it letter by letter

Instantly recognizing an irregular word like 'yacht' as a whole unit demonstrates a well-established orthographic representation that bypasses phonological decoding.

Which of the following pairs of words would be most useful on a WIAT-style orthographic choice task?

Answer: 'rain' vs 'rane'

'Rane' is a phonologically acceptable but orthographically incorrect spelling of 'rain,' making the pair ideal for measuring orthographic pattern knowledge.

Compared to dyslexic readers with primarily phonological deficits, students with primarily orthographic deficits tend to show:

Answer: Greater difficulty with high-frequency irregular words than with decodable words

High-frequency irregular words (e.g., 'island') cannot be fully decoded phonologically and depend on stored orthographic patterns, making them harder for students with orthographic deficits.

A teacher notices a student correctly spells a word on Monday but misspells it on Friday. This inconsistency most likely indicates:

Answer: Incomplete consolidation of the orthographic representation

Inconsistent spelling of the same word suggests the orthographic representation has not been fully consolidated into long-term memory for reliable retrieval.

How do double-letter patterns (e.g., 'kitten,' 'butter') challenge orthographic processing specifically?

Answer: They require memorization of positional letter patterns not predictable from sound alone

Knowing which consonant is doubled in which words is largely a matter of stored orthographic knowledge because the pronunciation is the same whether or not doubling occurs.

Which assessment finding would most strongly suggest that intervention should target orthographic processing rather than phonological awareness?

Answer: Adequate nonword reading with poor irregular-word spelling

Adequate nonword reading shows phonological recoding is intact, while poor irregular-word spelling points to weak orthographic representations as the specific deficit.