What is it about?
Children can learn the spelling and meaning of new words when they read. What we found in this study is that the more children learn the spelling of new words easily, the better their reading of individual words will be one year later; and the more children learn the meaning of new words easily, the better their understanding of texts will be one year later. We also found that children who increase their knowledge of words’ spellings the most over time are those who are the best at word learning during reading.
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Why is it important?
Some theories of reading postulate that children’s word learning ability is crucial for the development of reading. Our study is among the first to test the developmental nature of these theories by investigating children’s learning and reading skills over a one-year period.
Perspectives
In a previous study, my collaborators and I found that children’s ability to learn new words was associated with their reading skills at the same point in time. It was very exciting for me to be able to replicate these findings over a one-year period.
Dr Catherine Mimeau
Université TÉLUQ
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Learning spellings and meanings: Longitudinal relations to reading, Journal of Research in Reading, January 2025, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9817.12477.
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