New Scientist magazine reports on a survey from Coventry University that compared children's reading ability with their tendency to use text message abbreviations. Researchers asked 88 children aged 10-12 to compose a variety of text messages. After comparing the number of text abbreviations - they've called them 'textisms' - to a separate study recording the children's reading skills, they found that children who used more textisms were also better readers. A follow-up study has suggested that it's the texting that improves literacy, not the other way round, with language skills improving because textisms are based on speech sounds... and because children are writing for fun. [Sources: NewScientist.com; article at IngentaConnect.com]