According to Meumann, the whole field of language is a unit, psychologically considered. Reading, spelling, composition, the learning of foreign languages should thus be intimately interconnected for a given individual. He who learns one readily, should also readily learn the others, without notable exception.
This view of the close coherence among linguistic functions is borne out, also, by the work of Gates, already cited, in which he found high positive correlations among perceptual tests which use words as materials.
We must notice, nevertheless, that the correlations fall considerably short of unity. Illustrative cases show that occasionally children are found who can read well, but cannot spell legibly, though the present writer has not seen cases of the opposite condition, and has not found them reported in the literature.
Special defect in spelling will, therefore, be given separate consideration, though it must be recognized that abilities in spelling and reading are usually closely associated.
II. ANALYSIS OF LEARNING TO SPELL
It is virtually impossible for an educated adult, whose spelling habits have long ago become automatic, to reconstruct from introspection the long, difficult, and complex processes through which he passed in learning to communicate by means of correctly spelled words. Such an adult may gain some idea of what is involved in the spelling process by confronting himself with the task of learning to spell and write words upside down and backwards, but even so the experience of the child is not duplicated.
Analysis teaches us that this aspect of linguistic attainment ordinarily involves the formation of a series of connections approximately as follows:
(1) An object, act, quality, or relation is “bound” to a certain sound, which has often been repeated while the object is pointed at, the act performed, and so forth. In order that the connection may become definitely established, it is necessary (a) that the individual should be able to identify for himself the object, act, quality, or relation, and (b) that he should be able to recollect the particular vocal sounds which have been associated therewith. When this is accomplished, the sound has become a word.
(2) The sound (word) becomes “bound” with performance of the very complex muscular act necessary for articulating it.
(3) When school age is reached, certain printed and written symbols, arbitrarily chosen, visually representing sounds, become “bound” (a) with the recognized objects, acts, and so forth, and (b) with their vocal representatives, so that when the symbols are presented to sight, the word can be uttered by the perceiving individual. This is what we should call ability “to read” the word.