Abstract
Recent findings suggest that certain groups of children may experience problems such as specific learning disabilities (Van Alphen et al., 2004). Since the there is a shift from reeducation to prevention, researchers focus on mapping the development of areas important for reading and writing (Snowling et al., 2003).
However, less attention is paid to the field of morphology. Although English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) show weaknesses in producing grammatically correct statements (Smolík, 2009), no complex data are available in Czech, a morphologically rich language.
The main goal of the cross-sectional study was to analyse the developmental level of receptive and expressive morphological skills in 2nd graders at risk of dyslexia compared to typically developing peers. We examined whether there is a relationship between morphological skills in terms of comprehension and production, and whether there is a difference in perfomance between the defined groups.
A total of fifty-seven children aged 7;10 to 9;3 participated in the study. The sample included two risk groups - SLI (N = 14), family risk of dyslexia (N = 15) - and a control group (N = 28).
Children were presented with the Sentence comprehension test (SCT) and the Morphological awareness test (MAT) (Žlab, 1992). Statistical analysis (ANOVA) revealed no effect of age [F = 1,995, p = 0,146].
The results suggest that children with SLI and family risk of dyslexia show more difficulties in comprehension and production. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were detected between all groups in the tests administred [SCT: F = 6,988, p = 0,002; MAT: F = 20,992, p = 0,000].
The findings suggest that Czech 2nd graders who are at risk of dyslexia have problems exerting grammatical rules. This might spark professional interest in a particular area of school difficulties and stimulate subsequent implementation of proper interventions.