When learning to spell is challenging: Insights from eight Australian children and their teachers

Being able to write is critical for full participation in society in contemporary times, (Brandt, 2015), and spelling is a key transcription skill for efficient writing (Daffern, Mackenzie & Hemmings, 2017a). While a writer who is an effective speller can focus fully on crafting a written text, a writer who is a poor speller may instead be distracted by the task of spelling individual words. A poor speller may also limit their word selection to words that are easy to spell, which in turn may impact the specificity of their intended message. If spelling poses ongoing challenges, a young writer may develop a negative mindset about him/herself as a writer and avoid writing, leading to ‘arrested writing development’ (Graham & Santangelo, 2014, p. 1704). Thus, individuals with unresolved spelling difficulties may be restricted in their capacity and motivation to communicate, and this may exclude them from full societal participation.