Statistical learning and orthographic preferences among native Arab kindergarten and first graders

ABSTRACT The current study investigated the effect of the dominant Arabic orthographic features on children’s orthographic preferences. Forty first grade and 40 kindergarten native Arab children were tested. The results revealed that for the first grade group, high accuracy levels for acceptance of real words and rejection of pseudo-orthographic patterns were found. In addition, the first grade group showed significant preferences for accepting the connected patterns compared to the non-connected patterns as real words. For the kindergarten group, the participants showed higher tendency to accept the connected pseudo-orthographic patterns as real words than the non-connected patters. These findings were explained in light of the fact that in Arabic orthography there are high proportions of full-connected rather than non-connected patterns and this might affect the orthographic preferences of first grade and pre-school children. The statistical learning point of view was the main framework of discussing the results.