Uncovering strategy profiles in young children's reading & spelling

• The study examined the connections between young children’s reading profiles, spelling profiles and year group
• The categorisation of individual strategies was captured through verbal self-reports and video behaviour
• Children use multiple strategies to support both their single-word reading and spelling acquisition
• Partially ordered and distinct profiles were found when strategy performance in reading and spelling were analysed separately
• While reading and spelling profiles were strongly associated, only spelling profiles were influenced by age.

Young children are taught to read and spell using a range of different approaches to encourage them to form connections between spoken sound and written text, but past studies have often looked at reading and spelling strategies in isolation. In this study, the performance of 48 young children in Years 1 and 2 was assessed on experimental measures of reading and spelling to encourage the use of different strategies. Strategies were identified by video analysis and verbal self-reports. The findings revealed a strong reliance on multiple strategies as well as similar patterns of development in children's strategy choice for reading and spelling. Two separate cluster analyses revealed separate profiles, based on similar patterns of strategy use for both reading and spelling strategies, respectively and while reading and spelling profiles were strongly related, suggesting a close connection between these two sets of skills, only the spelling profiles were influenced by age.