Abstract
This article focus on invented spelling in pre-school children and its aim is to describe three perspectives in the study of spelling development: phonological, constructivist and the statistical learning perspectives These theories differ not only on the perspectives about the phases of early spelling but most of all diverge on the mechanisms behind the evolution. The two first approaches present the progression on invented spelling through a stage models while the third approach does not, because, according to their point of view the same basic mechanism underlies spelling acquisition throughout development. The authors discuss several critics that can be point out to each model and defend the importance of integrating the contributions of each theory in order to build up a clear picture of children’s development. They also describe several investigations that try to accomplish that purpose.
Keywords:
Written language; preschool children; constructivism