Hi Sue
My son, who is 10, has a problem with spelling. He reads adequately, but he spells words as they sound to him. I am concerned that he will encounter a lot of problems when he hits high school. Sometimes, I wonder if spelling even matters. What do you suggest?
Bronwyn
.
.
Dear Bronwyn
The ability to spell correctly is one of the fundamentals that will never cease to be important. Not only can spelling difficulties cause problems at school, but the ability to spell is nearly essential for adult employment.
A survey of 1,500 employers and employees conducted by Office Angels, the UK’s leading secretarial and office support recruitment consultancy, indicated the advantage of good spelling ability in the workplace.
This survey revealed that 84 percent of employers believe that the value of even the most excellent work can be debased on sloppy spelling and grammar. It further showed that 77 percent of employers regard a high degree of literacy as an essential skill and that employees who demonstrate attention to detail are likelier to be on the fast track to promotion. Work with sloppy spelling and grammar left 20 percent of employers fuming, while 53 percent perceived the employee as lazy and unprofessional. The same percentage of managers – 53 percent – admitted that they would not read further once they spotted literacy errors.
Thus, it is wise to ensure that a child’s spelling is on par.
Only one sequence is correct
Spelling is one curriculum area where neither creativity nor divergent thinking is encouraged. Only one sequence or arrangement of letters can be accepted as correct; there is no compromise or leeway.
English spelling is particularly difficult. Over the centuries, the pronunciation of English has deviated even further from the spelling. Many languages have reformed their spelling to adjust to such changes, but English has not. It teems with spelling and pronunciation challenges: words like buffet, cousin, canyon, cough, and mosquito.
What makes spelling even more difficult is that the written form of the English language has an inconsistent pattern. Only approximately 50 percent of spellings follow regular phonetic rules.
Learning is a step-by-step process
When teaching, we should always remember that learning is a step-by-step process. Specific skills have to be mastered first before subsequent skills can be learned.
Learning to spell correctly can be a challenging journey for most children, and it can be even more daunting – and at times, seemingly insurmountable – if there are underlying difficulties. The skill of spelling encompasses a multitude of subskills.
Subskills of particular importance are:
- The ability to analyze, i.e., to perceive the whole in its individual parts
- Auditory perception of letter sounds and auditory memory
- Decoding skills
- Visual memory for sequences.
.
Shortcomings in one or more of these subskills can greatly affect a person’s spelling ability.
Edublox offers online solutions to overcome problems such as these. Development Tutor aims to improve the subskills that are foundational to spelling, while our live online tutoring services address weak academic skills, such as spelling.
Spelling games like the four below can be played to teach and reinforce spelling.
Spelling games
1. Use board games
Play any game usually played with dice with your child — Monopoly, for example. The parent can continue to move her token forward in the usual way by throwing the dice, but the child must orally spell a word to move forward.
To select spelling words for the game, the parent can use words from the child’s schoolwork that they often misspell. She must make word cards of these words. It is best to use not fewer than 20 words and not more than 30. When playing a board game, the same 20-30 words can be used, or if the child already knows how to spell them, other words can be selected. The parent must thoroughly shuffle the word cards and then put them in a pile upside down on the table between the two (or more) players.
When it is the child’s turn to play, the parent must take a word from the top of the pile and then say it aloud. The child must spell the word. If the child spells the word correctly, they may move their token the same number of spaces as there are letters in the word. For example, they may move their token forward seven spaces for a word of seven letters. The word card is then put aside.
However, if they misspell the word, the parent must show the word to the child, and the child must spell the word aloud three times while looking at the word and then three times without looking at it. Then, the word is put at the bottom of the pile so it will appear again later. If the child misspells a word, they may not move their token for that turn.
2. Play hide and seek
Use the letters of a particular word and build new words with these letters. For example, if one decides to use the word “difficulty,” one would write this word on a piece of paper and put it in front of the child.
The aim of the game is that the child must make a list of all the words they can think of using only the letters of the chosen word. It can also be played as a competition, meaning the parent can play it with the child, and at the end, the one with the largest number of correctly spelled words wins.
There are always many words that can be formed in this way, and indirectly, the spelling of the chosen word is practiced, while many other words are also tested for spelling. A few examples of words that can be formed from the letters of “difficulty” are: if, left, cult, cliff, fifty, duty, etc.
Note that each letter may be used once only. The letter f appears twice in the word “difficulty.” Therefore, a word like “fifty” is acceptable. “Dull,” however, is not permitted.
Some examples of words to be used: alphabetical; misunderstanding; occasionally; postponement; mayonnaise; multimillionaire; credibility; determination; education; friendship; generosity; hippopotamus.
3. Word jumbles
Another interesting method of practicing spelling is by making word jumbles. The child then has to sort out the jumbled letters to come up with a word, which they have been taught before.
Words must be selected from the child’s schoolwork. Use a piece of paper and write the word jumble on the paper. For example, if the letters “hergun” are written on the paper, the child must rearrange them to form the word “hunger.”
4. Name, surname, animal and city/town
To play this game, the parent and child will both need a piece of paper and a pencil. Write the 26 alphabet letters on a piece of paper and randomly select a letter. The parent and child must now write down a name, surname, animal, and town that starts with the letter chosen as fast as possible. The one that finishes first gives the other party only 5 seconds before shouting, “Stop!” Then, all pencils must be put down.
Ten points are awarded for each correctly spelled word. However, if both parent and child had the same word under one of the headings, for example, both had the same animal, only 5 points would be awarded if the word was correctly spelled.
Say, for instance, the letter “d” was selected:
Names: Douglas, Danny, David.
Surnames: Davis, Dobson.
Animals: dog, dinosaur, deer.
City/Town: Dallas, Dubai.
Bronwyn, I trust the information provided will assist you in helping your son overcome his spelling difficulties.
Best wishes,
Sue
.
More about Sue
Sue is an educational specialist in learning problems and dyslexia and has a B.A. Honors in Psychology and B.D. degree. Early in her professional career, Sue was instrumental in training over 3,000 teachers and tutors, providing them with the foundational and practical understanding to facilitate cognitive development among children who struggle to read and write. With over 30 years of research to her name, Sue conceptualized the Edublox teaching and learning methods that have helped thousands of children who were struggling to read, learn and achieve. In 2007, she opened the first Edublox reading and learning clinic, and now there are 30 Edublox clinics internationally. Her proudest moments are when she sees a child who had severe learning difficulties come top of their class after one or two years at Edublox. Sue always takes time to collect the ‘hero’ stories of students whose self-esteem is lifted as their marks improve.
