Does the orthographic complexity of the word matter when the child is acquiring initial reading skills or are other factors more important? The present study presents longitudinal results on word decoding and spelling development of 35 Swedish first grade children. The children were followed in four test points during their first school year. Design and test material were based on Seymour et al, (2003). The results indicate that Swedish readers confirm well to the general pattern of development found in earlier studies. The orthographic complexities in Swedish, seems to affect the children’s reading development. Simple words were generally read correctly more often than complex words. For the first three test points monosyllabic pseudo words were read more correct than simple words. The results indicate that Swedish students in the beginning of the reading process have their attention focused on decoding words with using phonological skills and letter knowledge rather than using a logographic strategy.