Essentials for Spelling

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 line of thinking 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 – boat or bote but only one is the correct spelling. Phonetically you could spell the pronoun for a girl as hir, hur or her. All would be correct phonetically. From a NeuroDevelopmental Approach for Life’s perspective, 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. The good news is that these foundational skills can be developed and it doesn’t take another spelling curriculum to do it! In this week’s Brain Coach Tip, Jan Bedell of Little Giant Steps will help you understand these and more foundational skills required to be a good speller.