Phonological Characteristics of Grapheme–Phoneme Correspondence Errors in Children with Dyslexia: Segmental Position and Distinctive Feature Contrast Analysis in Dictation

Objectives: This study examined the phonological characteristics of grapheme–phoneme correspondence errors in dictation tasks performed by children with dyslexia. Errors were analyzed by segmental position and distinctive feature contrasts to explore their relation to hierarchical stages of spelling processing.Methods: Dictation responses from elementary school children with dyslexia (Grades 1–6) were segmented at the phoneme and morpheme levels. Grapheme–phoneme correspondence errors were classified by segmental position (onset, vowel, coda) and error process (substitution, omission, addition). Errors were further categorized as phonological or non-phonological. Phonological errors were sub-classified according to distinctive feature contrasts, including laryngeal, place, and manner features for consonants, and distinctive vowel feature contrasts.Results: Errors persisted across grade levels and were most frequent in the coda position. Phonological errors occurred more often than non-phonological errors and showed systematic concentration in specific minimal distinctive feature contrasts, such as laryngeal contrasts, diphthong simplification, and nasal–liquid or stop contrasts. Omission errors were particularly prominent in syllable-final positions, suggesting increased processing demands in these contexts.Conclusion: The findings indicate that spelling difficulties in children with dyslexia may reflect instability in phonological category boundaries and distinctive feature-level contrasts rather than mere accuracy deficits. The structured distribution of errors across segmental positions supports the view that dyslexic spelling involves vulnerabilities at foundational stages of phonological processing.