During which phase of reading development do students typically start to rely on phonetic spelling?

The alphabetic phase is characterized by students beginning to understand the relationship between sounds and letters. During this phase, learners start to use their knowledge of phonics to spell words based on the sounds they hear. They move beyond simply memorizing words to applying their understanding of sound-letter correspondences to decode and encode words. This newfound ability to rely on phonetic spelling signifies a crucial transition in reading development, as students begin to engage more deeply with the written language and utilize their awareness of phonemes to spell words.

In contrast, the prealphabetic phase is when students react to words based on visual cues without grasping the alphabetic principle. The consolidated alphabetic phase comes later, where students recognize larger units of sound and structure in words, indicating a more advanced level of word recognition that goes beyond simple phonetic spelling. Finally, the fluent phase shows the stage where students read with speed and accuracy, fluent comprehension but may not focus on phonetic spelling as they have already mastered it in earlier phases.