Spelling and word recognition in Grades 1 and 2: Relations to phonological awareness and naming speed in Dutch children

The influences of early phonological awareness and naming speed on Dutch children’s later word spelling were investigated in a longitudinal study. Phonological awareness and naming speed predicted spelling in early Grade 1, later Grade 1, and later Grade 2. Phonological awareness, however, predominated over naming speed for the prediction of early Grade 1 spelling. Comparison of the present results with those from an earlier study of children’s word recognition using the same dataset and also structural equation modeling showed word recognition speed at the ends of Grades 1 and 2 in the earlier study to be uniquely predicted by early naming speed. Nonetheless, naming speed may measure almost the same in word recognition and word spelling accuracy.