149 General discussion 6 Dutch task analysis can be found in Struiksma et al., 2004 or parts of it in Ruijssenaars et al., 2010). These task analyses provide clear goals to start designing lessons. The phonics through spelling intervention lessons that were carried out in the present dissertation were build according to the principles of direct instruction (see Hollingsworth & Ybarra 2017; 2020). Prior research showed that this instruction method is very effective in stimulating both reading (see National Institute for Literacy, 2007) and spelling abilities (Cordewener et al., 2015). Lessons that are based on direct instruction include (among other things) explicit teaching of declarative, procedural, andmetacognitive knowledge, next to the use of modelling and scaffolding techniques on the part of the teacher (see e.g., Rosenshine, 2010). Another element from the phonics through spelling intervention that was carried out in the present dissertation that could be included in the classroom is the principle to work from isolation to generalization of knowledge and skills in order to prevent cognitive overload (Paas et al., 2004). To be more specific, learning to read and spell could start with the isolation of new knowledge and skills, followed by integrating this with prior knowledge (e.g., after learning to read short and long vowels separately, children learn to read long and short vowel together). Thereafter, this acquired knowledge is being transferred to new situations (e.g., after learning to write words with ‘c’ a child needs to write a story for school and needs to learn to pay attention to the ‘c’ as well) that can be monitored by the teacher by asking questions to the child to check whether he or she has understood the material and by adjusting the lessons to the child’s individual needs. This dissertation showed that, in the complex interplay between multiple cognitive factors that are related to reading and spelling, semantic representations and, orthographic stimulation can give children with dyslexia an extra boost, which helps them to be perform slightly better in reading and spelling compared to children with dyslexia without these resources. These promising findings show that there are ways in which we can facilitate children with dyslexia to perform at their best.
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