A developmental view of spelling based on research confirms that children develop spelling strategies in predictable stages. There is continuous growth in spelling, but the stages are not fixed. A child's writing may show evidence of more than one stage. Just as some children never crawl on their way toward mobility, children may skip levels on their way to developing spelling competency.
Developing spellers progress through the
following stages:
Scribble writing demonstrates a child's awareness of the difference between writing and drawing. Scribbling is frequently done horizontally and reflects experiences the child has had watching others write. Children at this stage often do not know that their scribbles carry a message.
Example: (writing sample not yet available)
Pseudo writing can be recognized by separate, individual, letter-like shapes. while the child does not yet know correct letters, he is aware that the alphabet contains characters of differing shapes and sizes. Many times a message is intended in the symbolic print.
Example:
As the child begins to learn the alphabet, strings of random letters appear in his/her writing. the letters used are often capitals and have no sound/symbol relationship to the intended message. The letters in the child's name will be used more frequently, or even exclusively. Spaces sometimes break the letter strings to emulate words.
Example:
Children in this stage of development arrange letters of the alphabet to invent spelling for words. their writing indicates that they understand a link exists between letters and sounds. Children begin using single letters for entire words. Most often, these letters are beginning consonant sounds. Children may also use a single letter for whole words such as you (U), are (R) and be (B).
Example (Beginning Consonants):
"I can feel his (our snake's) backbone."
As children refine their understanding of letter-sound relationships, they write using letters on the basis of sound alone, rather than conventional spellings. They gradually represent all essential sound elements in words they are spelling. They add ending consonants, medial consonants, and then vowel sounds at these stages. At first, vowels are often incorrect.
Example (Beginning/Ending consonants):
Example (Beginning/Ending/Medial Consonants):
"I learned that germs make you sick. When you sneeze germs come out."Example (Beginning/Ending/Medial Consonants/Vowels):
"I learned that you should never play with matches or lighters. Never play with fire."
Eventually, children move from dependence on sound features and begin to use visual clues and knowledge of the structure of words. They spell some words correctly; other words look like English words and are close to standard spellings. They begin to consider alternate spellings for the same sound when a word "doesn't look right". This is often evidenced by increased erasures on the child's paper. There is usually a vowel in every syllable, and common letter patterns are more evident (oo, igh, ea). Inflectional ending (ed, ing, s) may appear in the child's writing.
Example:
"Rachael slept over at my house and I played with my friend Allison. We played Barbies the whole time. I was tired. We played for 2 hours and never stopped. I had to leave when we got to the best part. It was when they got to go swimming."
At this stage, children spell many words correctly, but not all. children typically reach this stage of development by the age of 8 or 9. They have learned the basic principles of the language and are ready for formal spelling instruction. During the next 4-5 years, children learn to correctly spell homonyms, contractions, prefixes and suffixes, and words with more difficult letter combinations.
Example:
** This page was created by Lisa Scruggs. Information on this page was taken from a handout compiled by Jeanette Thomas, Kirkwood School District Communication Arts Facilitator. **
