A study evaluated a program designed to increase knowledge of vowel sounds and improve phonetic and conventional spelling of children who showed a low level of spelling. Their level was so low that written communication beyond the most rudimentary level was effectively denied them. Subjects, 32 children from 10 participating schools broadly representative of the Standard 4 population in Wellington, New Zealand, were identified through screening test and writing samples. A three-step remedial spelling program was developed. All children selected were given six sessions of 20-30 minutes of individual tutoring over a two- or three-week period. Multiple baseline data, pretests, posttests and a control condition characterize data collection procedures. Measures of spelling achievement were combined to form seven sets of data. Results indicated that (1) participants' knowledge of short vowels and consonants increased significantly; (2) increased knowledge of short vowels did not transfer in a consistently measurable way to spelling in writing; (3) specific knowledge of short vowels and consonants were not related strongly to the other measures; (4) knowledge of short vowels did not predict later performance on the follow-up measures; (5) mean performance on the general spelling test showed some statistically insignificant increases; and (6) correlations between conventional spelling and phonetic spelling increased. (Contains 28 tables of data, writing samples, a description of the spelling program, and a list of measures of specific spelling skills.) (RS)