Do you teach spelling? It’s important to understand the stages of spelling development. Let’s take a look!
In my last post I shared a better way to teach spelling. Children learn best from a developmental, research-based approach to spelling instruction.
It’s called Word Study. It’s for kids from preK through high school. It’s inexpensive. It’s hands-on. It works.
Can you tell I love it?
But before I get into the how to teach it, I have to get into the technical.
Sorry about that!
I’ll try to make it as painless as possible.
Kids learn to spell just like they learn to read: they progress through developmental stages. You know that kids learn to read at vastly different rates. One child starts chapter books in kindergarten. Another isn’t ready for chapter books until second grade. Both might be excellent readers, but they learn at different rates.
Keep that in mind as you look at the age ranges. These are estimates – children may fall at either end of these spans or even out of them. (And it’s helpful to remember that children with special learning challenges may not progress through these stages.)
The 5 Stages of Spelling Development
The Emergent Stage (ages 2-5)
Children might recognize their alphabet, but they are just starting to write it.
Here’s a sample from the beginning of the emergent stage. Writing looks the same as drawing. My just-turned-Three draws and scribbles, but he doesn’t write letters yet.
For more detailed information about this stage, visit This Reading Mama’s post.
The Letter-Name Alphabetic Stage (ages 5-7)
Children know their alphabet and sounds – this comes out in their writing.
My four 1/2 year old is at the middle of this stage. His letter and letter sound knowledge is solid, and he is putting that to work in his writing. Sometimes he writes just a single letter for a word (H for have), but other times he sounds out the whole thing (BLO for blue and HAT for hat).
For more detailed information, visit This Reading Mama’s post.
The Within-Word Pattern Stage (ages 7-9)
Children start to see patterns within words.
My six-year-old (who just finished kindergarten) is at the beginning of this stage. She does well with blends (streebarres and plants) and is starting to experiment with long vowel sounds (baens for beans).
For more information, see This Reading Mama’s post.
The Syllables and Affixes Stage (ages 9-14)
Now kids start to understand how to put endings and extra syllables onto words.
(Sorry, my oldest is six years old – I don’t have a writing sample for the last two stages!)
For more information, see This Reading Mama’s post.
The Derivational Relations Stage (middle school through adulthood)
Understanding the meaning of words helps us spell them.
For more information, see This Reading Mama’s post.
That was a lot of information. Now what?
If that was information overload, pin it or print it for future reference. As you start becoming aware of your students’ spelling abilities, your understanding of the five stages will come together.
In the meantime, you’ll need to determine your students’ level of development. Words Their Way has an easy-to-use test for just that purpose. I’ll talk about it next time!
An edition of this book is a must-have resource!
Read the rest of the series!
- Part 1: There’s a better way to teach spelling
- Part 2: How to understand the levels of spelling development
- Part 3: How to know which spelling words to teach
- Part 4: Word sort activities
- Part 5: Meaningful spelling activities
OUR VERY FAVORITE PRINTABLE SPELLING GAMES
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Free Spelling Games
Get this fun variety of sample spelling games from the membership site! The download includes resources for spelling CVCE words, long vowel teams, and multi-syllable words.
