Reading and spelling are two key skills that everyone has a right to learn and develop. Reading and Spelling is particularly difficult for those who are suffering from dyslexia and those from disadvantaged backgrounds may also suffer from spelling if they do not get the right type of attention or learning strategy.
Teachers and parents play an important role in helping each child and pupil understands the basics of spelling and encourages their desire and motivation to read and spelling. Learning spelling can be difficult whether or not a child has dyslexia because the child may lack confidence, motivation, enthusiasm or may not be able to learn phonetically.
However, these small steps can be overcome with patience and time and letting your child know that it could take years to practice and get to a level where spelling becomes a natural part of the life. Visual reading is the common factor of children aged 6 to 9 misspelling words where they have memorized the spelling of the words in images and frequently guess the context rather than using the phonetic alphabet.
Visual reading and spelling are fine for those in their earlier years however it will become apparent when they get older and come across more difficult and complex words that they are in fact struggling with their spelling and reading skills. By which time, these children would have already trained their brain to visually read words so it will take a few more years to retrain their brain to read and spelling of each word phonetically.
Tell tale signs are obvious when the child is reading or spelling when they are around 7 – 8 years old when they will be extremely frustrated or have a wild guess at what they are reading or spelling. There are extra curricular spelling courses that help pupils to learn how to map letter patterns to sounds which mean they can learn to read and spelling any word they see or hear.
On average, spelling courses can accelerate their reading age within 6 months. If you decide to enroll your child in a spelling course, it is essential to participate in spelling courses that guarantee the results otherwise it can have a detrimental effect on your child’s development, education and can push your child back in their spelling ability even further.
