Researchers: Children who text frequently were found to perform badly in grammar tests

Text messaging is having more of an effect of young people's grammar skills than previously thought, researchers believe.

They say 10-12 year old children, known as tweens, who constantly rely on shortened words and phrases such as OMG, LOL and amazeballs, struggle in grammar tests.
'Tweens who frequently use language adaptations -- techspeak -- when they text performed poorly on a grammar test', said Drew Cingel, a former undergraduate student in communications, Penn State, and currently a doctoral candidate in media, technology and society at Northwestern University.


They may use a homophone, such as gr8 for great, or an initial, like, LOL for laugh out loud,' said Cingel.
'An example of an omission that tweens use when texting is spelling the word would, w-u-d.'
Mr Cingel said the use of these shortcuts may hinder a child's ability to switch between techspeak and the normal rules of grammar.
He gave middle school students in a central Pennsylvania school district a grammar assessment test.

I`m always very careful, particularly in response to any message made up of "text speak", to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation - it`s my little protest against the idiotic abbreviated rubbish which has become so prevalent.