There's More to Children's Spelling Than the Errors They Make: Strategic and Automatic Processes for One-Syllable Words

Researchers have attempted to understand the cognitive processing used in spelling by looking at children's spelling errors. The authors examined 2 other types of data - children's self-reported verbal protocols and on-line measures of spelling latencies. Elementary school children spelled 3 types of common 4-letter words, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant, and consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e. Correctly and incorrectly spelled words were analyzed as a function of word type, verbal report, and keystroke latencies. Different typing patterns emerged for strategic and automatic reports and for different word types. Children seemed to use a relatively sequential read-out from long-term memory when directly retrieving a spelling, whereas they used a consonant pair strategy for final consonant clusters when sounding out words. Implications for spelling instruction are discussed.