On the relationship between speech and writing with implications for behavioral approaches to teaching literacy.
Teach writing for writing’s sake, not as a copy of spoken language.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Paniagua (1990) is a theory paper, not an experiment.
The author maps how speech and writing connect.
He argues writing has its own features that speech lacks.
ABA should teach those unique parts, not just the overlap.
What they found
The paper says literacy lessons must target visual spelling rules.
They also need keyboard and page layout skills.
These parts do not exist in spoken words.
Teaching only the shared parts leaves gaps.
How this fits with other research
Hugh-Pennie et al. (2022) extends the idea into real classrooms.
They show how to embed those unique writing skills in lessons that honor culture.
Vollmer et al. (2025) updates the call by adding social-validity checks.
Now you ask students and families if the writing goals feel useful before you teach.
Nicolosi et al. (2025) widens the lens to neurodiversity.
They remind us that non-speaking autistic learners also need these tailored writing goals.
Why it matters
Stop treating writing as speech on paper.
Look at your learner’s goals and circle anything that only matters for writing: spelling patterns, punctuation, typing fluency.
Add one goal that has no speech twin this week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Two theories of the relationship between speech and writing are examined. One theory holds that writing is restricted to a one-way relationship with speech-a unidirectional influence from speech to writing. In this theory, writing is derived from speech and is simply a representation of speech. The other theory holds that additional, multidirectional influences are involved in the development of writing. The unidirectional theory focuses on correspondences between speech and writing while the multidirectional theory directs attention to the differences as well as the similarities between speech and writing. These theories have distinctive pedagogical implications. Although early behaviorism may be seen to have offered some support for the unidirectional theory, modern behavior analysis should be seen to support the multidirectional theory.
The Analysis of verbal behavior, 1990 · doi:10.1007/BF03392853