Haskins Publications

Number	205
Year	1976
Drawer	4
Entry Date	06/01/1999
Authors	Bell-Berti, F.
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Publication	Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 19, 225-240.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0205.pdf
Abstract	The study of spelling is oddly neglected by researchers in the cognitive sciences who devote themselves to reading. Experimentation and theories concerning printed word recognition continue to proliferate. Spelling, by contrast, has received short shrift, at least until fairly recently. It is apparent that in our preoccupation with reading, we have tended to downgrade spelling, pass it by as though it were a low-level skill learned chiefly by rote. However, a look beneath the surface at children’s spellings quickly convinces one that the common assumption is false. The ability to spell is an achievement no less deserving of well-directed study than the ability to read. Yet spelling and reading are not quite opposite sides of a coin. Though each is party to a common code, the two skills are not identical. In view of this, it is important to discover how development of the ability to spell words is phased with development of skill in reading them, and to discover how each activity may influence the other. Thus, this chapter is concerned with the relationship between reading and writing.
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