Learning to read morphologically complex words

Research on morphological processing in reading has shown that skilled readers can rapidly decompose letter strings into morphological units. However, comparatively little research has examined how and when children acquire this important skill. 

Here, we examine reading development cross-sectionally and longitudinally in a variety of different languages, including German, French, Italian and English primary school children. The aim of this project is to explore the developmental trajectory of children’s morphological processing skills in visual word recognition and to provide a more fine-tuned theoretical perspective of the mechanisms involved in identifying morphological substructures during reading.

One of the key outcomes of this project has been the development of the word and affix model, which aims to capture the core mechanisms of complex word recognition in skilled readers as well as the developmental trajectory of complex word processing in children.

This project has attracted funding from a number of different funding agencies, including the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), and the Australian Research Council (ARC).