It was found that hard-of-hearing children together with hearing children of deaf adults (CODAs), both with STS knowledge, used a sounding strategy, rather than a visual strategy. The deaf children also showed direct transfer from STS in their spelling. The deaf children showed a tendency to rely on a visual strategy during spelling, which may result in incorrect, but visually similar, words, i.e., a type of spelling errors not found in texts by hearing children with STS knowledge. All of the children also demonstrated similar typing skills. The results indicate that many children showed exceptionally few spelling errors compared to earlier studies, that may derive from their early exposure of STS, enabling them to use the fingerspelling strategy. The spelling behavior of the children was further analyzed and categorized into different spelling error categories. Keystroke logging was used to investigate the participants’ writing process. The spelling process of nineteen children with STS knowledge (mean age: 10.9) with different hearing degrees, born into deaf families, is described and compared with a group of fourteen hearing children without STS knowledge (mean age: 10.9). In this study, we examine whether, and how, different variables such as hearing degree, sign language knowledge and bilingualism may affect the spelling strategies of children with Swedish sign language, Svenskt teckenspråk, (STS) knowledge, and whether these variables can be mirrored in these children’s spelling. What do spelling errors look like in children with sign language knowledge but with variation in hearing background, and what strategies do these children rely on when they learn how to spell in written language? Earlier research suggests that the spelling of children with hearing loss is different, because of their lack of hearing, which requires them to rely on other strategies. 2Center for Languages and Literature, The Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

1Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.Moa Gärdenfors 1*, Victoria Johansson 2 and Krister Schönström 1

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