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This study examined whether conscious use of phonological knowledge is associated with invented spelling and whether a relation exists between invented spelling and reading. Thirty-two 4-year-olds with scores of 116 or higher on the StanfordBinet Intelligence Test were classified as Non-spellers and Inventive Spellers based on their spellings of 10 words on the Invented Spelling Test. All subjects were administered 11 different tasks which examined alphabet knowledge, word segmentation, sound/letter association, and reading knowledge. Results indicated that all subjects displayed a similar ability when required to recite the alphabet, recognize uppercase letter names, segment words into syllables, and identify basic concepts about print. Inventive Spellers demonstrated superiority at letter/sound identification and segmentation of words by phonemes. Although significant differences were observed between Non-spellers and Inventive Spellers on wordknowledge tasks, dramatic differences among Inventive Spellers were evident. Forty-four percent of the Inventive Spellers were found to be Proficient Word Readers whereas the remaining 56% displayed reading proficiency at a similar level as the Non-spellers. A relation was found between spelling ability and conscious use of phonological knowledge; however, word reading appeared to be a related (but separate) ability from word writing.Awareness has grown regarding the ability of young children to invent their own spelling systems before they are capable of either engaging in conventional spelling activities or reading written sentences. Read (1971) discovered "invented spelling," that is children's ability to attend to sound units in words and associate letters with those units in a systematic though nonconventional way before being 1 Journal of Reading Behavior taught to spell or read. He identified common characteristics in the spellings of preschool children and found that his subjects used phonetic contrasts and similarities in sounds. They analyzed words and selected letters based upon properties of the words' sounds and of sounds in the names of letters (e.g., nasality, syllabicity, backness, height, and affrication).Although Read's study provided insight into the nature of invented spelling, two related questions about invented spelling require further study: What connections, if any, are there between invented spelling and early reading abilities? And how conscious is an inventive speller's use of sound segmentation and sound/letter association abilities?A connection between spelling and reading is likely, and several studies have tended to confirm such a connection. For example, Morris (1983) found a relation between invented spelling ability and children's concept of word in text; that is, their ability to map spoken words to written words in reading a memorized text. Ehri and Wilce (1985) showed that kindergarteners' growth as readers is supported by their knowledge of how to use phonetic cues (word readers were more easily taught to read words spelled ...

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