Coordination of reading and spelling in early literacy development: An examination of the discrepancy hypothesis

The Discrepancy Hypothesis posits that children early in the acquisition process read visually (holistically) and spell phonologically. This claim was examined and rejected. We investigated reading and spelling in Grade 1 and Grade 2 children using controlled nonword and word materials with a variety of orthographic patterns. While reading and spelling were strongly correlated even among the younger readers, discrepancies between performance levels occurred in both directions. Children's responses were affected by word characteristics and whether or not they received school phonics instruction. Phonologically complex words, such as those containing consonant clusters, were particularly difficult for Grade 1 children to read, while words that were difficult to spell correctly but not to read tended to have multivalent mappings from sound to spelling. The generation of reading responses to specially selected nonwords was affected by both implicit and explicit phonological sources of knowledge. Orthographic knowledge gained in spelling did not always transfer to reading, and vice versa.