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Spelling WWYD?


Paige
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My DD is in 3rd grade and we used AAS in 1st grade. She did very well and we got through 3 levels in the year. I quit because it seemed she was a natural speller and it was overkill. Every lesson was easy, her spelling was good outside of spelling class, AAS takes a while and is expensive, and I thought we'd be better off spending time on other subjects. We switched to Sequential Spelling last year and she did fine and enjoyed it. 

 

We usually homeschool through summer but we moved this summer and had other craziness, and so we had much more time off than normal. Since starting school back, I've noticed her spelling ability is gone. I don't understand it. She's worse than or at least as bad as she was in kindy. 

 

I'm trying not to panic and take her to the Dr for an explanation. Is this normal for kids who haven't been practicing? We haven't resumed Sequential Spelling because I haven't located it in the boxes. I've been doing some on Spelling City, taking her back to 2nd grade words in CLE. She'll get terrible pretest results but usually does ok on the test. In her other writings, however, it's not carrying over. 

 

Should I be patient and trust that she'll get her groove back, or is this an obvious sign that we need to go back to AAS? If I do go back to that, should I start over in level 1? She doesn't remember her syllable rules (she says). WWYD? We are both frustrated. 

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Well, you might try just running her back through AAS to refresh her memory.  She may very well need consistency through summers until spelling rules genuinely stick.  Some kids understand rules of spelling quite quickly and can apply them easily, but the brain connections are actually weak.  Without continual repetition, sometimes for years, some kids don't actually retain the knowledge in a practical application way.  I would give her scaffolding in her writing while you review and give her a chance to refresh her memory.  If review doesn't help, then she may need a different program altogether to help her retain.  Hugs and good luck.  Hopefully someone else has some better suggestions.

 

ETA: You said you were wondering if you should take her to the doctor.  Are there other areas she is struggling that she normally doesn't?  Or are there academic areas she has always struggled?

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ETA: You said you were wondering if you should take her to the doctor.  Are there other areas she is struggling that she normally doesn't?  Or are there academic areas she has always struggled?

 

She doesn't normally struggle with anything but the move's stressed her out. DH joked that she must have bumped her head and while I was mostly joking about a medical cause, DH's comment stayed in my head. She's doing fine with other subjects. DS had hearing loss show up at about her age, however, so with spelling issues, it's a red flag to me. If you can't hear well, it's hard to spell. 

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She doesn't normally struggle with anything but the move's stressed her out. DH joked that she must have bumped her head and while I was mostly joking about a medical cause, DH's comment stayed in my head. She's doing fine with other subjects. DS had hearing loss show up at about her age, however, so with spelling issues, it's a red flag to me. If you can't hear well, it's hard to spell. 

Ah, I can see where your concern is.  Is your son's hearing loss genetically linked?  Could you get her hearing checked, just to be sure, and to hopefully remove that from your worry list?   :grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

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My daughter is not a natural speller, but I was shocked at how bad her spelling was at the beginning of this school year after our first real summer break.  We're almost 2 months into our school year now, and it's getting better, especially during spelling lessons.  (We reviewed some of the AAS3 lessons because the suffix rules were giving her trouble.  And she still always wants to add "es"  to make a word plural, even if just "s" will do.)

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Ah, I can see where your concern is.  Is your son's hearing loss genetically linked?  Could you get her hearing checked, just to be sure, and to hopefully remove that from your worry list?   :grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

 

We have no known cause of DS's hearing loss. He tested fine when he was little and then suddenly didn't. The doctor didn't seem to care. I'm going to push for a better explanation with our new doctors. DD has a check up next week and I'll ask for a screening since it's been a while for her.

 

My daughter is not a natural speller, but I was shocked at how bad her spelling was at the beginning of this school year after our first real summer break.  We're almost 2 months into our school year now, and it's getting better, especially during spelling lessons.  (We reviewed some of the AAS3 lessons because the suffix rules were giving her trouble.  And she still always wants to add "es"  to make a word plural, even if just "s" will do.)

 

That makes me feel so much better! We've always done school year round and because of the move and other issues we took off more than 4 months this year. I've been shocked by how quickly they forgot stuff. 

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If you've actually had hearing loss in your family, you might want to take her to an audiologist and not just rely on the ped screening.  Around here I can take her to the big university and get a FULL eval, with even a CAPD screening if needed, for $35.  Now it would be a lot more privately, but I'm just saying you would be better with a more thorough eval, even if it's for a baseline.  And that would give you the chance to discuss your other dc's hearing loss and the family history there as well.  Might be sort of cathartic.

 

Fwiw, I took my ds in because of his speech and reading issues, just to make sure there wasn't a hearing or APD issue as part of it.  They didn't think that was crazy at all.  I'd definitely want an actual audiology eval when you're this concerned.

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