ABSTRACT

Using an available longitudinal sample, Jones (2004) analyzed the year 2 through year 7 data for 114 Australian students and replicated prior research showing that (a) automaticity of letter writing predicts compositional quality and (b) gender differences occur with boys having poorer automaticity. She also showed that the relationship between letter automaticity and quality of composition extends further in development than previously reported; these findings are consistent with those of investigators in England (Connelly, Campbell, MacLean, & Barnes, 2006) and USA (Peverly, 2006), who are also finding that this relationship between automaticity of alphabet letter writing and composing and note-taking ability extends to high-school and college students. Controlling for reading ability, Jones extended prior work by showing that automaticity of letter production contributes to spelling as well as handwriting.