The development of phonological rules and visual strategies in average and poor spellers

To investigate the development of phonological and visual skills used in spelling, 420 children between the ages of 6 and 16 completed the spelling dictation test of the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised. The misspellings were scored for phonological as well as visual accuracy using a constrained (inclusion of position cues) and an unconstrained system. Poor spellers made fewer phonologically accurate and fewer visual matches than age-matched average spellers. Poor spellers produced significantly more misspellings that were close visual matches to the target word and fewer phonologically unconstrained misspellings than spelling grade-matched average spellers. The groups did not differ in their production of phonologically constrained misspellings. Average spellers used a phonological approach more frequently than a visual approach, while the reverse pattern was true for poor spellers. When phonological rules are less well developed, then individuals are more likely to use orthographic skills.