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There is a PowerPoint file available to accompany this presentation. The BDA Conference 2001 CD-ROM contains 61 PowerPoint files. For details of how to obtain the CD-ROM, please contact the BDA.
Thursday stream 4 Session 14.00 - 15.40 Length 25 minutes
Marketa Caravolas
Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool M.C.Caravolas@liverpool.ac.uk
Abstract
This study investigated the early abilities that underlie the development of spelling skills in speakers/spellers of English. Spelling progress was monitored in a cohort of 152 children over the first three years of formal schooling. At each of three testing points, children were also administered a battery of tests measuring phoneme awareness, letter knowledge, reading, verbal and visual memory span, and coding speed. At the fourth (final) test point, standardised tests of spelling, reading and receptive vocabulary were administered. As expected, regression and path analyses showed phoneme awareness and letter sound knowledge to be the best unique predictors of the ability to produce phonologically acceptable spellings over the first twelve months of schooling. In turn, phonemic spelling ability and reading ability best predicted conventional spelling accuracy after 18 months and again after 32 months of schooling. The results indicate that spelling ability is founded on phoneme awareness and letter sound knowledge. These two skills enable the child to acquire phonological(or invented) spelling ability, which in turn promotes reading skill. Reading skill and phonological spelling ability then independently promote learning of the orthographic code and of conventional spelling.
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