Spelling

Reading and spelling are closely linked, but also draw on different skills and processes. At the most basic level, spelling is a production task while reading is one of recognition. That there are differences in the demands of reading and spelling is evident from the existence of a small but distinct group of individuals who are unexpectedly poor spellers: their reading falls within the normal range, but they fall well below average on measures of spelling. By closely studying children who show this profile, we can learn more about which skills are common across reading and spelling, and which skills are distinct.

LDA Webinars: Spelling

Alison Clarke: English has Five Kinds of Logic

English has Five Kinds of Logic

Alison Clarke breaks down the English language into ‘five kinds of logic.’ You can find additional information and resources on Alison’s Spelfabet website.

Dr Tessa Daffern: Assessment-Informed Practices in Teaching Spelling

Assessment-Informed Practice in Teaching Spelling.

You can find more information about Tessa’s work and additional resources on her website.

Dr Bartek Rajkowski: Why Teachers of English Spelling need to be Experts in the Sounds of Speech

Bartek has provided handouts to accompany his presentation and further resources can be found on his website The Reading Doctor. Used with permission from Dr. Rajkowski and the South Australian Education Department.

Why Teachers of English Spelling need to be Experts in the Sounds of Speech.

Have you ever told a student that a word is spelled a certain way because English is weird? In this presentation, Speech and Language Pathologist Dr. Bartek Rajkowski will convince you that written English has an undeserved reputation for being illogical. He will explain why English words are spelled the way they are, and why teaching kids to read and spell requires us to be experts in understanding the relationship between English speech sounds and spelling.

Useful links

Spelfabet

Key Readings

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So, How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly…

A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and high-stakes spelling tests. That approach was featured in best-selling textbooks such as the Horn-Ashbaugh Speller of 1920. In the early 21st century, however, skepticism as to the importance of spelling has grown, some schools have deemphasized or abandoned spelling instruction altogether, and there has been a proliferation of non-traditional approaches to teaching spelling. These trends invite a reevaluation of the role of spelling in modern English-speaking societies and whether the subject should be explicitly taught (and if so, what are research-supported methods for doing so). In this article, we examine the literature to address whether spelling skills are still important enough to be taught, summarize relevant evidence, and argue that a comparison of common approaches to spelling instruction in the early 20th century versus more recent approaches provides some valuable insights. We also discuss the value of explicit spelling instruction and highlight potentially effective ways to implement such instruction, including the use of spelling tests. Overall, our goals are to better characterize the role of spelling skills in today’s society and to identify several pedagogical approaches—some derived from traditional methods and others that are more recent—that hold promise for developing such skills in efficient and effective ways.

Acquired and developmental disorders of reading and spelling

Two cases of acquired spelling dyslexia and one case of developmental spelling dyslexia are described along with accounts of…

Two cases of acquired spelling dyslexia and one case of developmental spelling dyslexia are described along with accounts of their performance on various psycholinguistic tasks. It is argued that there is some evidence that spelling dyslexia may exist in developmental form but that parallels are difficult to draw because of the very different histories of child and adult cases. It is also suggested that features of surface dyslexia exist in at least a proportion of spelling dyslexic cases and that this may be influenced by level of premorbid reading skill.