Abstract
During a school year, samples of words written by three groups of children of successive ages were collected. Two groups of children were in first and second year of Kindergarten (4 and 5 years of age), when alphabetic rules were not taught in a systematic way. The third group was in first year of Primary School (6 years of age), and was being taught to read and spell in a systematic way. After classifying the words written by the children, seven categories of spelling were obtained, which may represent different stages in their learning process. Their analysis showed that they are related to different types of knowledge and processes, mainly phonological ones. The results show that the development of spelling in Spanish does not qualitatively differ from that of children who learn to spell in opaque writing systems. The differences mainly involve the time it takes to learn, and the rate of acquisition.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. M. Bozorne A. Signorini (1998) ArticleTitleEmergent writing forms in Spanish Reading & Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 10 499–517
P. Bryant T. Nunes A. Aidinis (1999) Different morphemes, same spelling problems: Cross-linguistic developmental studies M. Harris G. Hatano (Eds) Learning to read and write: A cross-linguistic perspective Cambridge University Press Cambridge 112–123
G. Cossu (1999) The acquisition of Italian orthography M. Harris G. Hatano (Eds) Learning to read and write: A cross-linguistic perspective Cambridge University Press Cambridge 10–33
F. Cuetos (1993) ArticleTitleWriting processes in a shallow orthography Reading & writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5 17–28
S. Defior G. Martin-Martin (2001) De una fotografía a un puzzle: el desarrollo de la escritura en niños españoles (From a picture to a puzzle: The development of spelling in Spanish). En C. Muñoz (Coord.), Trabajos en Lingüística Aplicada (Issues in Applied Linguistic ) Univerbook Barcelona 637–643
S. Defior F. Martos L. Herrera (2000) ArticleTitleInfluencia de las características del sistema ortográfico español en el aprendizaje de la escritura de palabras (Influence of Spanish Orthographic system features in learning to spell). Estudios de Psicología (Studies in Psychology) 67 55–64
L. C. Ehri (1986) ArticleTitleSources of difficulty in learning to spell and read Advances in Developmental & Behavioural Paediatrics 7 121–195
N. C. Ellis (1994) Longitudinal studies of spelling development G. D. A. Brown N. C. Ellis (Eds) Handbook of spelling John Wiley & Sons Ltd Chichester 155–187
M. Fayol M. G. Thevenin J. P. Jarousse C. Totereau (1999) From learning to teaching to learning French written morphology T. Nunes (Eds) Learning to read: An integrated view from research to practice Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht 43–63
E. Ferreiro A. Teberosky (1982) Literacy before schooling Heinemann New York
U. Frith (1985) Beneath the surface of developmental dislexia K. Patterson M. Colheart J. Marshall (Eds) Surface dislexia LEA London 301–330
J. R. Gentry (1982) ArticleTitleAnalysis of developmental spelling in GNYS AT WORK The Reading Teacher 36 192–200
J. R. Gentry (1987) ArticleTitleEarly spelling strategies The Elementary School Journal 79 88–92
J. E. Gombert (1996) ArticleTitleWhat do children do when they fail to count phonemes International Journal of Behavioural Development 19 757–772
E. H. Henderson J. W. Beers (Eds) (1980) Developmental & cognitive aspects of learning to spell: A reflection of world knowledge International Reading Association. Newark, DL
F. Lázaro (1989) Lengua española (Spanish Language) Anaya Madrid
L. J. Lombardino T. Belford C. Fortier J. Carter J. Brandi (1997) ArticleTitleInvented spelling: Developmental patterns in kindergarten children & guidelines for early literacy intervention Language Speech and Hearing Services in School, 28 333–343
Marín, J., Carrillo, M., & Alegría, J. (1999). El proceso de aprendizaje de la escritura en español y francés: Un estudio comparativo (Learning to spell in Spanish and French: A comparative study). IV Simposio de Psicolingüística (IV Symposium in Psycholinguistic), Miraflores de la Sierra (Madrid).
D. Morris (1983) ArticleTitleThe concept of word and phoneme awareness in the beginning reader Research in the Teaching of English 17 359–373
C. Read (1971) ArticleTitlePre-school children’s knowledge of English phonology Harvard Educational Review 41 1–34
C. Read (1975) Children’s categorizations of speech sounds in English National Council of Teachers of English Urbana IL
C. Read (1986) Children ‘s creative spelling Routledge & Kegan Paul London
L. Rieben M. Saada-Robert (1997) Relations between word-search strategies and word-copying strategies in children aged 5 to 6 years old C. Perfetti L Rieben M. Fayol (Eds) Learning to spell: Research, theory and practice across languages Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mahwah, NJ 295–318
D. L. Share (1995) ArticleTitlePhonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition Cognition 55 151–218
D. Share I. Levin (1999) Learning to read and write in Hebrew M. Harris G. Hatano (Eds) Learning to read and write: A cross-linguistic perspective Cambridge University Press Cambridge 89–111
R. Titos S. Defior J. Alegría F. Martos (2003) The use of morphological resources in Spanish orthography: The case of the verb R. M. Joshi C. K. Leong B. L. J. Kaczmarek (Eds) Literacy acquisition: The role of phonology, morphology and orthography IOS Press Amsterdam, NL 113–118
L. Tolchinsky A. Teberobsky (1997) Explicit word segmentation and writing in Hebrew and Spanish C. Pontecorvo (Eds) Writing development An interdisciplinary view John Benjamin Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia 77–98
R. Treiman (1994) Sources of information used by beginning spellers G. D. A. Brown N. C. Ellis (Eds) Handbook of spelling John Wiley & Sons Ltd Chichester 75–91
R. Treiman (1997) Spelling in normal children and dyslexics B. Blachman (Eds) Foundations of reading acquisition and dyslexia: Implications for early intervention Lawrence Earlbaum Associates Mahwah, NJ 91–218
R. Treiman V. Broderick R. Tincoff K. Rodríguez (1998) ArticleTitleChildren’s phonological awareness: Confusions between phonemes that differ only in voicing Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 68 3–21
R. Treiman M. Cassar (1997) Spelling acquisition in English C. Perfetti L. Rieben M. Fayol (Eds) Learning to spell: Research, theory and practice across languages Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mahwah, NJ 61–80
F. Valle-Arroyo (1989) ArticleTitleErrores de lectura y escritura Un modelo dual (Reading and Writing errors. A dual model). Cognitiva 2 35–63
H. Wimmer K. Landerl (1997) How learning to spell German differs from learning to spell English C. Perfetti L. Rieben M. Fayol (Eds) Learning to spell: Research, theory and practice across languages Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mahwah, NJ 81–98
H. Wimmer K. Landerl U. Frith (1999) Learning to read German: Normal and impaired acquisition M. Harris G. Hatano (Eds) Learning to read and write: A cross-linguistic perspective Cambridge University Press Cambridge 34–50
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Defior, S., Serrano, F. The initial development of spelling in Spanish: From global to analytical. Read Writ 18, 81–98 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-004-5893-1
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-004-5893-1