The foundations of spelling ability: Evidence from a 3-year longitudinal study

The development of spelling skills was investigated at four points over the first 3 years of schooling in 153 British children. In order to uncover th e developmental relationship between spelling and reading ability and to id entify the component skills of spelling, children were assessed with a larg e battery of tests, including reading, phoneme awareness, letter-sound and letter-name knowledge, memory, and verbal and nonverbal IQ. Spelling produc tions were assessed both for phonological plausibility and for conventional accuracy. A path analysis revealed that phoneme segmentation and letter-so und knowledge were the precursor skills of early phonological spelling abil ity; in turn phonological spelling combined with reading to promote convent ional spelling skill. Although initial phonological spelling ability predic ted later reading, early reading ability did not influence later phonologic al spelling ability. These results indicate that skilled spelling requires a foundation in phonological transcoding ability which in turn enables the formation of orthographic representations. Our data also suggest that the i ncreasingly complex and specific orthographic patterns demonstrated in chil dren's spelling are learned through experience and instruction in both read ing and spelling. (C) 2001 Academic Press.