Eide Neurolearning Feed| Neurolearning Tips for Spelling |
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Many children with severe spelling problems have dyslexia that may have not been recognized. Regardless of the source, understanding the different strategies that can overcome learning blocks in spelling can have a tremendous impact on lifelong spelling. Tip #1: What's the Strongest Memory System? The most common memory systems for spelling are auditory (remembering what's been said), visual (remembering the appearance of the sequence of letters), or kinesthetic (remembering movements of the hands or fingers). Choose your approach to spelling based on the child, not on another person's recommendations or reviews.
Auditory learners may learn their spelling words best by practicing words aloud. Visual learners will do well with flashcards - sometimes ones with doodles and colors to emphasize tricky letter blends like the silent 'gh' in night. Kinesthetic learners will learn best by writing out their spelling words or making large arm movements in the air (air writing) or on a whiteboard with colored / scented markers.
Children often show a pattern of their mistakes that can suggest whether the problems is due to phonological awareness or auditory processing (sound-based spelling mistakes) like writing the word 'world' like 'wold' (i.e. not hearing the 'r') or problems with visual processing (reversing the order of letters in the middle of words) or visual memory (phonetic misspellings like 'edukashun' for education). Some of the most commonly misspelled words are homonyms - words that sound alike, but have different meanings based on their spelling. In order to make different homonym spellings more memorable, we created a spelling book Visual Spelling Book, that shows how color and doodle images can be used to help students keep these challenging words straight. |
