“Parents and educators need not panic that exposure to abbreviated and unconventional spelling and writing styles in digital communication will lead to the ruin of young people’s conventional literacy skills.”
“Rather than texting detracting from the literacy abilities of young people, it seems to represent the addition of an extra literacy skill — the ability to represent, in writing, what they would have said if they were speaking.”
… it seems that kids are capable of distinguishing between this sort of experimentation and the formal, proper language that’s expected on tests. But it also seems that the experimentation increases general fluency, improving kids’ reading and writing skills.
Read more about the study here.