Many words in English resemble one another in multiple ways. Words with similar spellings are referred to as "orthographic neighbors." The purpose of this within-subject experimental study was to examine the effect of orthographic neighbors on the spelling acquisition of second-grade students. In each of five sessions of a computer-based…

Orthographic processing -- the ability to perceive, access, differentiate, and manipulate orthographic knowledge -- is essential when learning to recognize words. Despite its critical importance in literacy acquisition, the field lacks a tool to assess this essential cognitive ability. The goal of this study was to design a computer-based…