Mismatches and relationships between reading and spelling in Portuguese-speaking children: A partial testing of Uta Frith’s theory

um teste parcial da teoria de Uta Frith

Abstract

The development theory of Uta Frith predicts mismatches between reading and spelling, and in some points of the acquisition of skills, reading is more sophisticated and favors the development of spelling, while in other phases the opposite occurs. Although its influence, this view has never been empirically tested. Our objective is to carry out a partial testing of the Frith’s reading and spelling development model trough a cross-sectional study in Brazilian-Portuguese speaking children. From the theory, two hypotheses were generated: (1) if the development of the alphabetic phase in reading depends on the mastery of the written alphabetic phase, then children of 7 years who are in the alphabetic phase of reading (1a) might not have orthographic knowledge in spelling and (1b) will tend to perform better in spelling than in reading; (2) if the performance in the orthographic phase in spelling depends on the mastery of the orthographic performance in reading, then children between 7 and 10 years old who are the orthographic phase in spelling (2a) must be necessarily in the orthographic phase in reading and (2b) will tend to perform better in reading than in spelling. The hypotheses were tested by groups of cases from a sample of 72 children from the 2nd to the 5th year of a public school. The performance profiles obtained in the sample corroborated only the first hypothesis. Longitudinal investigations should be conducted in the future to clarify the relationship between reading and writing in the most advanced stages.