There is little direct verification of a causal relation between dyslexic children's morphological
knowledge and the progress that they make in reading. Here we report the results of two intervention studies
which say learning to read depends on dyslexics being aware of morphology as well as of phonology. In the
first study some children were taught about morphologically-based spelling rules and others about
phonological rules. The morphological training had beneficial and non-specific effects on word reading that
were similar to those obtained with phonological training. In spelling, morphological training had specific
effects on the learning of morphological spelling rules. The second intervention study was with dyslexic
children who had fallen behind in reading, some of whom were taught about morphology and spelling rules and
others about phonological rules. Our intervention did not improve these children's reading, but we found
evidence of specific effects on children's learning of morphological spelling rules.