Landmark study finds better path to reading success

Dr Richard Gentry, Psychology Today, 30 Mar 2017.  Ouellette and Sénéchal (2017) have provided further evidence for helping young literacy learners with temporary or ‘invented’ spelling.  Their attempts to represent words in print integrates phonological and orthographic growth, and there is a direct line from temporary spellings leading to improved reading scores at the end of first grade.  Indeed, their temporary spellings were found to be “a unique predictor of growth in early reading skills, over and above children’s alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness,”  —  the latter being pushed by phonocentric, synthetic phonics approaches.  Read the article here