Help with spelling

[flummoxednow]

My ds has real problems with spelling. He gets all his letters muddled up. In all other areas he is fine. He swims really well, passed Grade 1 in both violin and piano within a year of starting lessons. ( he does have a problem with sightreading). Am i being overly anxious?? Help

[NikkiH]

How old is he? What does his teacher say?

[flummoxednow]

He is eight and a half. His teacher says that he is only about one year behind. The reason I am asking is that I cannot understand why he excels in other areas, even when he has to read text, and find spelling so difficult.

[NikkiH]

Is it learning words for spelling that he finds difficult or, once he learns them, retaining them and using the words correctly spelt in his writing work?

The reason I ask is that my DS2, also aged 8, doesn't have any problems learning the words he's given for spellings albeit with a lot of practising, but he spells phonetically and reverts back to this whenever he writes. It's like his imagination takes over and he's more concerned with getting his ideas and the words down on paper so any attention to spelling them correctly disappears out of the window. However, if you then go back over his work with him and say 'how do you spell x, y or z' he'll be able to spell them out perfectly!

[Loopyl00]

Calm your nerves and get him checked out if you are worried (have you spoken with his teachers to see if they think he really has aproblem?)

If he is muddling up his letters he may have slight dyslexia which is NO big deal so don't freak out. If you get in there early enough there are plenty of help and special techniques for helping him and you, so that you don't get stressed out and he doesn't get anxious because he feels he's not achieving the same as his piers

My stepbrother (now 36) was diagnosed with dyslexia at 11 - he has the most amazing memory and you want him on your team for trivial persuit every time.

I live in France and I teach English to primary school kids. Although English is easy gramatically it is not a phonetic language and with the 'gh' sounds (through / rough / night) let alone all the different vowel combinations making different sounds and different vowels making the same sounds as other vowels (cow / plough / sew / know / sea / see )

Ten minutes reading with you each evening may help - at a level that he is comfortable reading.

This may make you laugh

I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead-it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose
Just look them up--and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful language? Man alive,
I'd mastered it when I was five!

[flummoxednow]

Hi, thanks for your comment. The problem you described with your 8 year old ds is very similar to mine. It was in Year 2 that this problem became apparent. His teacher says that his spelling went out the window when he starts to write and he has to learn spelling over and over again before he retains them, this also for short period of time. Do you try to write short stories with your ds? Does that help?
Thanks

[NikkiH]

I don't try writing short stories with DS2 but make sure when he is writing something for homework that he checks it through afterwards, point out any words that he's misspelt and ask him to think about how they are spelt so that they are then corrected. Sometimes I have to help him with unfamiliar words which aren't phonetically built up but if they are words which he has covered in his spelling tests he can normally dredge up the correct spelling. I also find by speaking clearly and making sure he can see the shape my mouth is making, he picks it up quicker - a common error for him is mixing up f, th and v sounds.

English is such a tricky language and the older they get the trickier it gets with the introduction of er, ur and ir; gh for a f sound etc etc etc.