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Very mild dyslexia - spelling strategies

9 replies

temporary · 16/07/2013 10:30

I am waiting to get my dd assessed, she is Y4.
Her problems seem to lie only in kooky spellings that are odd, although not all the time. And quite bad handwriting that hasn't improved despite going into extra lunchtime lessons. The writing isn't sooo much of a barrier now, but her teacher was concerned in the future it would become one when they do more timed work. She is slow and does seem to have a block when it comes to getting her (many) ideas onto paper. They usually don't make it!

I am thinking of things I can do to help her in the meantime with her spelling. Or do I need to get her properly classified first??

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dyslexicdespot · 16/07/2013 10:59

Could you buy her a good Dictaphone to record her thoughts? You could transcribe them for her. I use one on a regular basis and it helps me with my writing.

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kitchendiner · 17/07/2013 06:19

Word Shark

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grants1000 · 17/07/2013 09:35

Mind Maps - get her to learn to do these, she can then get all her ideas, in brief on paper, then refer to the mind map when she is writing.

My eldest DS is dyslexic (Y6)and uses these all the time, he says if he can get all the ideas out of his head on to a mind map, where spelling does not matter, where there are more ideas than he might use, where the ideas for a map in sections, he can then concentrate on sentances, spellings and structure without the ideas getting in the way.

Also she could learn Mnemonics for certain words, my DS does this, for example, 'their' is 'The Horses Eat In Ranches' It sounds bizzare to a non dyslexic brain that it is easier to learn that than the actual spelling but this is how the dyslexic brain works best for some.

Word Shark is OK but quite boring and expensive.

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temporary · 17/07/2013 12:13

Thank you for your replies. They have all given me food for thought.

The mnemonics idea is a good one for spelling tests, the problem with dd is that her mistakes are really unpredictable and bizarre.

I think just deciding that she probably is a little bit dyslexic has been a positive step, as now I don't feel the need to gasp when I see a real clanger of a mis-spelling, which is much better for her.

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NoComet · 17/07/2013 12:27

Marking my place DD1 and me put clangers in all spellings, DD's texts are brilliant. Sadly never found a good way to get spellings into our wonky brains. DD1 needs one for Geog GCSE (why the fuck spelling and grammar matter in geog, more than science, RE etc, Gove God knows)

Grant is spot in that learning to mind map is incredibly useful for essay planning and revision.

Being able to look at a page of simple, clearly linked main points, rather than a sea of badly spelt and untidily written notes is very helpful.

She also puts bullet points on record cards and reads through those not her notes.

I wonder if colour syllables and words within words etc on those would help with difficult spellings?

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NoComet · 17/07/2013 12:48

The bizarre is because you can see and read a word a thousand times, but the letters within it do not register. I've just had to go back to your post to get bizarre close enough for autocorrect.

Dyslexics wild guesses at words are totally incomprehensible to NT people. DD2 thinks DD1 and me are quite mad. I think she can see a word in her head as it appears on the page. DD1 and I can't. We know what a word says and what it means, but that's it, we hear/feel the word as a single object, not see it as a collection of letters.

DD1, even more bizarrely not only can't spell the word, she often doesn't even say the right word if reading out loud (some times her choices are more than bizarre).

Yet she gets stunning scores on comprehension tests and has no trouble with complex science notes and novels and likes Shakespeare.

I'm afraid OP it's a fascinating, but difficult job having dyslexic DCs and schools haven't a clue.

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temporary · 17/07/2013 17:23

What an interesting post starballbunny, the colour coding syllables sounds like a good one to try.
It is fascinating to hear your daughter is such a high flier and copes with such difficult texts.

I asked dd how she managed to miss whole chunks out of words and she said something like she sees words as whole and doesn't see the middle bits. So a recent example of a spelling was "prention" for "prevention", or "puntion" for "punctuation". She's a really good reader though....

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grants1000 · 17/07/2013 18:30

Yes StarBallBunny my DS loves those Dr Seuss books, Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ha, Red Fish etc are a breeze for him to read and to me they are very tounge twistery!

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NoComet · 18/07/2013 02:00

They are my idea of hell, you have to be accurate and I paraphrase as I read, another thing that winds non dyslexic DD2 up. I let DH read to her at night because she just corrects me all the time Blush

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