Spelling acquisition in two social groups: Mother-child interaction, maternal beliefs and child's spelling

Spelling was investigated from socio-cultural and cognitive prespectives among low and high SES groups. Collaborative writing among 40 mothers and their second-grade children was observed, and maternal beliefs on spelling were extracted from interviews. Children's spelling was assessed prior to interaction. LSES children had more spelling errors and discussed spelling with their mothers more frequently than the HSES children. LSES mothers expressed nontolerant beliefs on spelling errors compared to the HSES mothers. Correlations were found within groups between the child's independent spelling level and the degree to which spelling was discussed in the interaction, but no correlations were found between maternal beliefs and child's spelling. Implications for children's spelling development in a sociocultural context are discussed.