The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined
whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental lev-
els can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by
using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants
and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students,
of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task
consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained
unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained
unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the impor-
tance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had
poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial
difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor readers struggled with spelling words with double
consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two- and
three-syllable words than typical readers. Practical implications for early identification and
instruction are discussed.

EB00000003573K

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• Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Syllable Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children