THE MINIMAL PAIR TECHNIQUE AND THE REMEDIATION OF SPELLING PROBLEMS

The minimal pair technique is a well-known method of remediation for c hildren showing phonological disorders. In this technique a child disp laying a particular phonological process (e.g. cluster reduction, fron ting, backing ...) is confronted with pairs of words that when subject ed to that process are rendered identical. Through confrontation with such pairs, the child is taught that different sounds signal different meanings. Thus far the minimal pair technique seems to have been used exclusively in the treatment of phonological disorders. The present p aper reports the results of a study which was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of minimal pair treatment in the remediation of part icular spelling problems. Focusing on one of the primary spelling diff iculties for Dutch pupils a training programme was designed similar to that of available programmes for the remediation of phonological proc ess errors. Administration of the programme to a group of children wit h persistent developmental reading and writing problems strongly sugge sts that the minimal pair technique is indeed a useful approach in the treatment of spelling errors too.