Spelling Essentials

Spelling is an important skill for school and life. Many parents are baffled as to why some of their children are good spellers and others are not. This seems to occur even when children are taught with the same reading program. Some educational professionals advocate spelling using a phonetic approach. The challenge with this approach is that there are several ways to spell many of the English sounds. For instance, phonetically, you would spell the word for a small ship – soap or sope but only one is the correct spelling. Phonetically you could spell the pronoun for a girl as hir, hur or her. All would possess the correct phonetic sound. From the viewpoint of the NeuroDevelopmental Approach, one prerequisite to consistently spelling correctly is the ability to visualize (see in pictures). You also need the skill of visual discrimination, i.e. the ability to see slight differences in very similar words. These foundational skills can be easily developed with the right know-how. The good news is that it doesn’t take another spelling curriculum to do it!