Emergent literacy: A look at how preschoolers begin to develop spelling skills

Abstract

Reading and spelling success in school relies on early phonological development. Much is known about emergent reading during preschool years, but less is known about spelling, the "hard copy" of phonological processing. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a difference in sensitivity between two spelling score systems: invented spelling and bi-gram analysis as related to phonological awareness. Scores from forty children who have participated with a caregiver in an emergent literacy play group were examined. Data were gathered from both pre- and post- tests of the APELS. Preliminary analysis suggests that there is no difference in sensitivity between invented spelling and bi-gram analysis. An analysis of variance used to determine if there is a relationship between spelling and phonological awareness suggests that there is a significant positive relationship between phonological awareness and spelling scores.