Invented Spelling and Reading Acquisition in Pre-school-age Children

ABSTRACT Several researchers have shown that invented spelling activities with pre-school-age children contribute to literacy acquisition, having a positive impact on the evolution of children's writing and phonological awareness. Our aim was to assess the impact of an invented spelling programme on reading acquisition. The participants were 60 Portuguese 5-year-old children who were not able to read or write. Children were randomly divided in two groups, experimental and control, equivalent in terms of knowledge of letters, phonological abilities and intelligence. The experimental group participated in an invented spelling programme and the control group in a story reading programme. Children's word reading was evaluated in a pre-test, a post-test and a differed post-test. Experimental group had better results in both post-tests.