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This study created and attempted to validate a Spanish version of a developmental spelling test (DST). The DST was administered in conjunction with measures of letter knowledge, concept of word, word reading, and reading comprehension to kindergarten, first, and second graders (n =, 80) and followed-up with first graders (n = 30) one year later. The subjects were enrolled in a bilingual program in which students are first taught reading in their native language. DST scores are found to be strongly related to the reading measures and quite similar to results found with English DST's. The DST was easy to administer and high in internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Uses for a DST are discussed that concern planning Instruction, placement and grouping decisions, and measuring growth. The DST scoring procedures provide a framework for analyzing spellings In naturally occuring text. Validating a DST page 3 Validating a Spanish Developmental Spelling Test Bilingual programs vary as to their focus on language of instruction and to the amount of time in which instruction is provided in the child's native language (L1). The transitional bilingual model is one in which instruction Is initially presented in L1. As students gain proficiency in English (L2) instructional time in L2 Is increased. One purpose of providing native language reading instruction in the transitional model is to facilitate students' subsequent learning to read in English and for eventual transition into classrooms where instruction is presented exclusively In English. Given this objective, transitional bilingual programs need to be especially concerned with measuring the growth of their primary grade children -those reading In their first language. The instructional and test materials market for teaching reading to students in the United States whose native language is. Spanish is no doubt growing. Nevertheless, it is small by comparison to the breadth of choices that fill the reading materials market In English. As a result, teachers in schools where bilingual programs begin reading instruction In Spanish can discover that they have few choices when they search for good assessment instruments. One assessment that might be quite useful is a developmental spelling test (DST) -a relatively simple test that provides an Validating a DST page 4 Index of a child's word knowledge (Henderson, Estes, & Stonecash 1972). DSTs are based on a thorough body of research on the emergent spelling ability of young children (Beers, Beers, & Grant, 19 ? ; Beers & Henderson, 1977, 1980; Gentry, 1978, 1982; Henderson, 1981; Morris & Perney, 1984; Read, 1971; Zutell, 1979). However, they are used not Just by researchers but by teachers as well. It Is becoming standard fare for textbooks concerned with the How-To's of teaching beginning reading to Include DST's (Henderson, 1981; Gillet & Templeton, 1982; Temple, Nathan, & Burris, 1982). Some elements of the articulatory basis of children's 'invented spellings' have been shown to extend to Spanish (Hudelson, 1981-82; Temple, 1979). At the same time, the similarities and differences in spelling In English and Spanish have not been worked out with such detail that a solid research basis is provided for a Spanish version of a DST. So, based on the research in developmental spelling In English and building upon research that has begun to classify children's Invented spellings in Spanish (Hudelson, 1981-82), a Spanish version of a DST and a corresponding scoring system were constructed. The purpose of this Investigation was to validate the Spanish DST by determining its relationship to reading ability and comparing that to the results found in the literature on DST's in English. Validating a DST page 5 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Developmental spelling research was Initiated by Read's (1971) examination of young children's "Invented' spellings. Read identified the linguistic bases of these spellings and showed that the children's productions were, indeed, thoughtful and strategic. The youngsters were using what they knew about letter names and they reasoned out spellings according to how the sounds within words are pronounced. That Is, when they couldn't match a sound directly to a letter name, they categorized sounds by their articulatory features. Building upon Read's work, Henderson (Henderson, Estes, & Stonecash, 1972) hypothesized a model of word knowledge acquisition In which children pass through successive developmental stages. In this view children adopt spelling strategies that are useful at one time but which are later abandoned In favor of more informed strategies that reflect increasing knowledge about how English spelling works. Beers and Henderson (1977) examined writing samples that were collected at regular Intervals throughout first grade. They documented that children moved through a series of stages indicated by changes in the strategies they used in spelling vowels. They noted that children moved through these spelling staaes at different rates but that the spelling pattern sequences are generally invariant regardless of the time that the child begins to learn to write. Validating a DST page 6 Eventually, Gentry (1978, 1982) summarized these patterns of spelling strategies into five stages -precommunicative (referred to as 'preliterate' In this study), semiphonetic, phonetic, transitional, and correct. He reported a relationship between the children's spelling stages and their reading achievement scores. Morris and Perney (1984) further delineated the semiphonetic stage In constructing a DST that could be used with first-semester first graders. In confirming the relationship between reading ability and a student's spelling strategy, they found that a DST score from January of first grade was a significant predictor of end of year reading achievement. Subsequent research has attempted to identify other abilities that are related to spelling development. Wordness, or concept of word, refers to a child's understanding of the match between spoken words and the boundaries of printed words and seems to be strongly correlated to spelling ability. Morris (1983) found that children with a poorly developed concept of word were seldom able to represent more than beginning consonants in their spellings. Children with a rudimentary knowledge of the word concept generally represented beginning and ending consonants but rarely vowels. Those with a well developed concept of word consistently spelled at the phonetic stage by mapping out consonants and