Cognitive processes in language to spell for normally developing readers

A developmental sequence of spelling acquisition and associated errors.

This section describes the typical sequence of development, but individual children may jump a stage, or seem to get stuck in one, or exhibit features of two stages simultaneously, or seem to go through some stages in reverse order. The labels for the stages were coined by Frith (1985).

• The 'logographic' stage (age 5 or 6)
• The 'alphabetic' stage (age 6-7)
• The 'orthographic' stage (from about 8)