Up until now, psychologists have tended to concentrate on the early stages of how children learn to read and spell. Using the authors' internationally renowned research, this accessible book extends models of early literacy, focusing on how a child's reading and spelling develop after the initial stages. The authors demonstrate that there are radical changes in the way children read and spell as they get older, and that these changes continue through most of their time at school. They describe a new theory about the learning that goes on in these later stages and provide evidence for that theory. The theory is about how children construct for themselves conditional and morphemic spelling rules, and about the role that informal experience and formal and explicit instruction play in this constructive learning. The book makes clear the considerable educational implications of how children learn to read and spell after the initial stages.