Learning to Spell Words: Findings, Theories, and Issues

There has been less research on how children learn to spell than on how they learn to read, but a good deal is now known about spelling development. This article reviews studies of normative development, beginning with children’s early scribbles and proceeding to prephonological spelling involving letters, phonologically influenced invented spelling, and more advanced spelling. Most of the studies deal with spelling development in alphabetic writing systems. Theories about how children learn to spell, including constructivist theories, stage and phase theories, dual-route theories, and Integration of Multiple Patterns, are presented and reviewed in light of the research evidence. The final section of the article discusses directions for future research and implications for children with spelling difficulties. Much research on literacy development looks at how children learn to read. But learning to write is also important, and increasingly so now that people have so many opportunities to text, to tweet, and to use social media. The goal of this article is to review what is known about one of the skills that is involved in writing: the ability to spell individual words. I take a developmental approach in discussing the research on this topic, beginning with children’s early scribbles and proceeding to more sophisticated spellings. Several theories about spelling development are then presented and critiqued in light of the research evidence. The last section of the article discusses some open questions and directions for future study.