Error Analysis in Reading and Writing found in Primary School Children

Abstract

The aim of this descriptive study is to determine the characteristics of reading and writing errors of Colombian children who are in second grade and who don’t present neuropsychological issues. To achieve this goal, 61 children aged between 7 and 9 years old were divided in two groups, the first group was formed by students with high or superior achievement in Spanish, whereas the second group was formed by those with basic or lower achievement in Spanish. Results allowed to identify and compare errors and grammatical categories used from both groups. Differences and similarities were found in both groups such as the following mistakes: omission, substitutions, additions, translocations, orthographic mistakes, mirror-writing, word joining and segmentation. Furthermore, it is implied that these mistakes depend on the reading or writing task to which the child is exposed. We concluded that omission and addition are the most common errors in the sample evaluated. Also, it was found that the occurrence of errors in reading assignments is less common in children from Group A, presenting better precision, and therefore a greater generalization of phonological structure of words. However, a greater number of errors were found in writing tasks with these children due to the larger quantity of written words.