This paper discusses the role of phonological and morphological processing in learning to read and spell. It is also a personal re ection on the author's research program in these areas for nearly 30 years, moving from language pro les of children with special needs to componential analysis of reading and spelling. Several studies on the effect of morphological processing on reading and spelling are outlined. It is suggested that the trend is towards a cross-linguistic framework and studies of psycholinguistic and neurocognitive levels of reading processes.