Spelling

There has been less research on how children learn to spell than how they learn to read, but research on spelling development is also important. This entry reviews research on spelling development in typically developing children, with a focus on learners of alphabetic writing systems. The entry begins with a discussion of children's early spelling attempts and moves on to a discussion of early phonological spellings and more sophisticated spellings. It reviews and discusses theoretical perspectives on spelling development, including the phonological perspective, constructivist perspective, and statistical-learning perspective. The entry also considers implications for how best to teach children about spelling.