title: Causal connections in the acquisition of an orthographic rule: a test of Uta Frith's developmental hypothesis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In a longitudinal study we tested Frith's causal hypothesis that children first gain orthographic knowledge through reading and then later, as a consequence, through spelling.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children from Years 2 and 3 were tested three times over two years on their reading and spelling of pseudo-words which conformed to the conditional orthographic rule, the 'final -e' or 'split-digraph' rule.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cross-lagged panel correlation analyses suggested that the children's success in reading split-digraph words was a causal determinant of their learning to use split-digraphs in spelling, in the 7- to 8-year period and, with one year-group but not with the other, in the 8- to 9-year period. In the 9- to 10-year period children's success in reading no longer seemed to affect their spelling.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results strongly support Frith's causal hypothesis about the development of orthographic knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA. davis@haskins.yale.edu
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bryant
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014956:Writing