A study investigated whether developmental patterns found in an earlier study were related to spelling and if salient structural features of words for word recognition contributed to spelling performance. Word recognition (decoding) and spelling data were taken from the normative sample of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement. Data were available on approximately 100 students for both word recognition and spelling tests at each grade level (1 through 6). Results of the previous study indicated that structural features contributed greatly to early readers' single word recognition and diminished considerably for older, more competent readers. An identical pattern was noted in the present study for structural features of words and spelling--structural features contributed greatly to early readers' spelling performance and diminished considerably for older, more competent readers. Further research is exploring the contribution of individual structural features of words to determine if the salient orthographic variations in individual children's spelling performance parallel those identified in single word decoding. (RS)