The validity of recent research concerning invented spelling, the developmental stages in children's writing, and whether children will attempt writing before reading and continue writing while learning to read were examined. Five developmental stages in spelling have been identified: (1) the precommunicative stage, involving the use of random letters strung together; (2) the semiphonetic stage with letters representing beginning and/or final sounds; (3) the phonetic stage with words spelled the way they sound; (4) the transitional stage, in which visual memory of patterns of spelling was present; and (5) the correct stage of spelling. Five children, of mixed race and socioeconomic backgrounds and ranging in age from five to seven, were involved in a journal-keeping experiment. Near the end of the kindergarten year, their teacher made a journal for each of the children and told them they could write in them daily, about anything they wanted to share with her. The children would then read the stories to her, and she wrote what they said below the child's writing. Later, the spelling was analyzed using Gentry's stages of invented spelling. The journals were continued the following year when the children were in first grade. All five of the children appeared to progress through the stages of invented spelling; they attempted writing before reading and continued to write while learning to read. (Eleven references are included.) (AEW)