Prephonemic (pictoral or precommunicative)

Examples (2-3):
Child traces the letters of the alphabet
Child practices writing out name after tracing
Features (3):
uses symbols from alphabet
no letter-sound correspondence
no distinction between capital and lower cases

Early Phonemic (semi-phonemic)

Examples (2-3):
Child knows name begins with an A
Child uses U in place of you
Features (3):
Understands that sounds correspond with letters
Rudimentary logic
Knows some of the sounds that correspond with letters

Letter-name (phonetic)
Examples (2-3):
Child spells cat as kat
Child sounds lamb and spells lam
Features (3):
Auditory spelling
Not conventional spelling
one syllable spelling patterns

Transitional
Examples (2-3):
Child spells hiked as higheked
Child spells egul as eagle
Features (3):
Assimilating conventional spelling
Visual understanding of spelling, less phonology
spelling meaningful parts of words

Conventional
Examples (2-3):
Child spells words like night and either correctly
Child writes a story in past tense and uses ed after
verbs
Features (3):
Knows basic rules of spelling
Identifies prefixes, suffixes, silent consonants,
alternative spelling, irregular spelling

Large accumulation of words