ABSTRACT
A number of models of the development of spelling have been progressively refined over the last 15 years (Ehri, 1986; Gentry, 1978, 1982; Henderson & Beers, 1980; Morris, 1983). These share the following commonalities: (a) They are based on analyses of spelling errors when children attempt to spell novel words (invented spellings); (b) they are stage theories, proposing that qualitatively different cognitive processes are involved in children’s spelling at different points in development and that there is a characteristic progression from stage to stage; (c) they emphasize that phonological awareness plays a crucial role in children’s early spelling but, also, that children eventually acquire orthographic descriptions of words. These models have been developed in parallel with cognitive developmental stage theories of reading acquisition (see Marsh, Friedman, Welch, & Desberg, 1980, 1981) that are also based on error analysis, which also hold that there are very different strategies of information processing used in reading at different stages of its development, and which also emphasize the links between phonological awareness and reading development. Although
1Parts of this chapter appeared in G.D.A.Brown & N.C.Ellis (1994a) and are reprinted with permission of the publisher.
