From Print to Meaning and from Print to Sound

Abstract

Two groups of 12-year-olds, both of normal intelligence and reading age, were compared. One group consisted of good spellers, the other of poor spellers. The two groups were equally good at reading single words and sentences. However, they differed on other reading tasks, notably with nonsense words and other tasks involving conversion of print into sound. The differences indicated that the poor spellers were proficient at going from print directly to meaning, but were impaired at converting print to sound. In contrast, the good spellers shower mastery of both aspects of reading, converting print to meaning and converting print to sound.