Current research projects examine various aspects of spelling and reading and their development.
- Young children sometimes produce spellings that do not represent the sounds of words. Are these spellings random strings of letters? Do the spellings reflect some knowledge about the graphic characteristics of printed words? We are conducted research in order to address these questions.
- How do parents and children talk about writing and letters at home? How do these early experiences relate to later literacy development? To find out, we are examining conversations between parents and their preschool children.
- In English, spelling can be challenging for adults. How do people spell new words? What rules and patterns exist in the language, and what rules and patterns do people use? We carry out experiments with adult participants in order to address these and related questions, and we also examine the nature of the English spelling system itself.
- Much of the research on spelling and reading development has concentrated on how children learn about the links between letters and sounds. Learning about letters’ shapes and names is important too. We are examining this learning in children in the U.S. and other countries.
The following links may be useful for those who are interested in using some of the tests, materials, and items that my colleagues and I have developed.
- Ponto, an automated test instrument for evaluating the phonological plausibility of young children’s spellings
- Scoring key for composite scoring measure of T-BEST ( Treiman & Bourassa, 2000; Bourassa & Treiman, in press)
- Reading test and data sheet from Treiman & Rodriguez (1999) and later articles
- Free-choice and two-choice letter name and sound tasks from Treiman et al. (1998) and subsequent papers
- Word list, mean RTs and error rates from Treiman, R., Mullennix, J., Bijeljac-Babic, R., & Richmond-Welty, E. D. (1995). The special role of rimes in the description, use, and acquisition of English orthography. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 107-136.
- Orthographic constraints test from Treiman, R. (1993). Beginning to spell: A study of first-grade children. New York: Oxford University Press (pp. 167-170).
- Stimuli from Treiman and Zukowski (1991). Levels of phonological awareness. In S. A. Brady & D. P. Shankweiler (Eds.), Phonological processes in literacy (pp. 67-83). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.