Background and aims Effective literacy instruction demands a clear understanding of the subskills that underpin children’s reading and writing abilities. Some previous research on reading has questioned whether the same subskills support literacy acquisition for typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders. This study examined the subskills associated with spelling ability in a group of 20 children with ASD aged 5–12 years (ASD group). A group of 20 typically developing children matched for age and word spelling accuracy (TD group) provided comparative data. Methods Participants completed standardised assessments of vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and word spelling. Errors produced in response to the word spelling assessment were analysed for evidence of phonological awareness. In addition, all spelling attempts were analysed for evidence of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness, ‘linguistic awareness’, using the Computerised Spelling Sensitivity System. Results Correlation and regression analyses showed statistically significant relationships between phonological awareness and word spelling accuracy for children in the ASD and TD groups. Spelling errors produced by both groups contained evidence of phonological awareness. Analysis of all spelling attempts showed that the overall level of linguistic awareness encoded by children in the ASD and TD groups was not significantly different. Conclusions These findings provide evidence that phonological awareness and other subskills support spelling in children with autism spectrum disorders as they do in typically developing children. Implications The similar spelling profiles exhibited by children with autism spectrum disorders and their typically developing peers suggest that these populations may benefit from literacy instruction that targets the same underpinning subskills.

中文翻译：

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有和没有自闭症谱系障碍儿童的与拼写能力有关的亚技能

背景和目标有效的扫盲教学要求对构成儿童阅读和写作能力的子技能有清楚的了解。先前的一些阅读研究质疑相同的子技能是否对通常发育中的儿童和患有自闭症谱系障碍的儿童的识字能力有所支持。这项研究检查了20名5至12岁的ASD儿童（ASD组）中与拼写能力相关的亚技能。由年龄和单词拼写准确性匹配的20名典型发育儿童组成的组（TD组）提供了比较数据。方法参与者完成了词汇，语音意识，字母知识和单词拼写的标准化评估。分析对单词拼写评估产生的错误，以获取语音意识的证据。此外，使用计算机拼写敏感性系统，对所有拼写尝试进行了分析，以获取语音，正字法和形态意识（“语言意识”）的证据。结果相关性和回归分析表明，ASD和TD组儿童的语音意识与拼写准确性之间存在统计学上的显着关系。两组产生的拼写错误都包含语音意识的证据。对所有拼写尝试的分析表明，ASD和TD组中儿童所编码的总体语言意识水平没有显着差异。结论这些发现提供了证据，表明自闭症谱系障碍儿童的语音意识和其他亚技能与通常发育的儿童一样支持拼写。