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colleagues to interpret these spellings.ż Henderson and his colleagues then extended Read’s work. The
Virginia spelling studies resulted in a comprehensive model
of developmental word knowledge—of how our knowledge
of words develops over time from young children to adults
through three layers: from sound or alphabet, to pattern,
to meaning.z One interesting insight growing out of this work was the fact that
the spelling development of children over time mirrors the historical
development of English spelling over time.
ż For example, Henderson referred to beginning spellers as
“little Saxons,” because of the similarities between the way
young children spell and how the Anglo-Saxons spelled and
wrote in Old English.
ż In fact, the alphabetic layer in English was established during
the Old English period. As the authors of the book Words Their
Way put it, “[Old English was] remarkably consistent in letter-
sound correspondence and used the alphabet to systematically
represent speech sounds.” That is quite similar to the way
young children spell and read: one letter for each sound
they hear.ż And this insight makes sense. The oldest words in English are
the short, high-frequency Anglo-Saxon words, such as sun,
moon, and day. These Anglo-Saxon words are the same high-
frequency words that children learn to read and spell in the
primary grades.z Here’s what we know, then, about the alphabetic layer of English
spelling:
ż First, children in the alphabetic layer have a tacit logic
underlying their spelling; their spelling makes linguistic sense.