Incorrigible spelling

[Violet Crown]

Dd7 is a reasonably good speller for her age, but where she makes errors, she cannot be corrected. She regularly writes (for example) 'onely,' 'squeril," and 'wallk.' We study them, she writes 'only,' 'squirrel,' and 'walk' when examined on the words ... and the very next time she uses them in her writing, she's back to the exact old misspelling. It's as if in her little mind there's the 'spelling test' way of writing them, and then there's the way you write them when you want to actually use the words.

 

She was an extremely early reader--learned everything as a sight word--and now while she understands phonetic rules and word patterns, I think the misspellings have burned into her brain visually.

 

Do I keep these, and many similar serially misspelled words, forever on her list? Or do I leave it for a while and see if a little maturity helps? She's still very little.

[nmoira]

Copywork did wonders for my early reader, though it was officially "handwriting practice" rather than spelling. ;)

[Violet Crown]

I've tried copywork--actually we recently threw over LLATL which she hated for PLL which she loves, and which has a fair amount of copywork--but somehow it doesn't help. I'm fairly sure she doesn't copy the words, but reads the sentence, then turns to her paper and writes the sentence, and somewhere in the processing the words transmute. The letters that were before her eyes have no impact on the letters that appear on the paper.

[Aludlam]

Have you looked into AAS? It has done wonders for us!

 

Angela

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Have you looked into AAS? It has done wonders for us!

 

Angela

:iagree:

[MerryAtHope]

When she writes, are you expecting that she will have perfect spelling on a first draft? Is there ever a time for her to go back and revise--check for spelling errors etc... and make corrections? I wouldn't do that a lot at her age, because she is still a young writer. But thinking about new ideas and how to write them plus all the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization at the same time is a lot to handle at once. Here's a blog article I wrote on helping kids use their spelling skills in their writing. AAS has helped us a lot with this too because of the gradual progression with dictations starting short and getting longer, and then adding some original writing later on.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

[Guest]

What your daughter does sounds exactly like what mine does -- but mine is fourteen! She spells quite well in isolation, when we are working on "spelling." Any other time some of the exact words she spells correctly when we practice are mixed up or misspelled.

 

Part of it is the combination of visual and auditory ways she learns; part of it is that her brain is skipping WAY ahead of her hand.

 

What I have at long last begun doing that seems to work: take anywhere from one to five of her most frequently misspelled words and have her write them twenty times each. The next day, if she knows them, it's ten times. Then five. Then I just watch her regular writing to see what happens.

 

The repetition seems to ingrain a body-brain connection and overwrite the old, mistaken spelling somehow. It's worked for nearly every word I've done this with. I do try not to do it very often, though. I pick words she uses a lot -- "only" for your daughter would be a good one to start with, for instance. "Squirrel," on the other hand, is a pretty tough word for a seven-year-old, and I would let it go for the moment (unless she's fond of writing stories about squirrels for some reason!). What I don't want is to end up with constant, huge lists. It's just one tool of many, for particularly stubborn misspellings.

[Violet Crown]

Have you looked into AAS? It has done wonders for us!

 

I haven't even heard of it before, but will look into it. Thanks!

[Violet Crown]

When she writes, are you expecting that she will have perfect spelling on a first draft? Is there ever a time for her to go back and revise--check for spelling errors etc... and make corrections? I wouldn't do that a lot at her age, because she is still a young writer. But thinking about new ideas and how to write them plus all the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization at the same time is a lot to handle at once. Here's a blog article I wrote on helping kids use their spelling skills in their writing. AAS has helped us a lot with this too because of the gradual progression with dictations starting short and getting longer, and then adding some original writing later on.

 

HTH some! Merry :-)

 

Interesting blog article; you give me hope.:) And another vote for AAS, I see.

 

I do let her go over her writing--she will catch spelling errors resulting from writing errors (omitted letters, for instance), but will look right at a habitually misspelled word and think it looks fine. Things are complicated by not only the other orthographical details you mention, but also from her having just mastered cursive, and insisting on writing everything in cursive. However we were struggling with this while she still wrote in print; cursive has just given me the added skill of sorting "misspelled because of paying attention to the penmanship" from "misspelled because nothing can convince her that 'which' really does have two 'h's."

[Violet Crown]

What your daughter does sounds exactly like what mine does -- but mine is fourteen! She spells quite well in isolation, when we are working on "spelling." Any other time some of the exact words she spells correctly when we practice are mixed up or misspelled.

 

Part of it is the combination of visual and auditory ways she learns; part of it is that her brain is skipping WAY ahead of her hand.

 

What I have at long last begun doing that seems to work: take anywhere from one to five of her most frequently misspelled words and have her write them twenty times each. The next day, if she knows them, it's ten times. Then five. Then I just watch her regular writing to see what happens.

 

The repetition seems to ingrain a body-brain connection and overwrite the old, mistaken spelling somehow. It's worked for nearly every word I've done this with. I do try not to do it very often, though. I pick words she uses a lot -- "only" for your daughter would be a good one to start with, for instance. "Squirrel," on the other hand, is a pretty tough word for a seven-year-old, and I would let it go for the moment (unless she's fond of writing stories about squirrels for some reason!). What I don't want is to end up with constant, huge lists. It's just one tool of many, for particularly stubborn misspellings.

 

More good advice. Focus on the persistent troublemakers. 'Squirrel' really might have to make the list, though; she has an odd fascination with including the furry rodents in any writing assignment.

[cottagechick]

I was just reading about VSLers and spelling....several books mention using color to help. For instance, they recommend taking a word and dividing it into syllables, using a different color for each syllable. Write it very large on a sheet of paper, have the child hold it out and up a bit at arms length and study the word for a minimum of 20 seconds...telling the child to 'take a picture' of the word, or 'write this word on the whiteboard/movie screen in your head'. Let them look at the word until they can visualize it in their brain. You 'test' them by asking if they can spell the word both forward AND backward....which means they truly have a mental 'picture' of the word.

 

For some reason, the color helps cement (and hopefully overwrite) the misspelling. Because words are stored as images in the right hemisphere of a VSL, once a picture is there, it's hard to 'erase' it. Using color can add that 'jolt' to make the word almost a completely different word on their internal visual screen.

 

Once they can spell a word forward and backward from their mental image, one other suggestion to really 'cement' that image is to make index cards with the words (again, each syllable in a different color) and hang them up where the child will see them a lot. One idea was making a 'tree' of words by getting a large branch, tying the cards to it, and placing it in their room where they'll see it before sleeping and upon awaking.

 

Having said all that, I haven't gone in depth with this method for my atrocious speller yet, but I *have* been amazed at his ability to spell a word correctly when I ask him to 'look it up on his whiteboard in his mind'. When he takes the time to do this, he gets it right everytime. I think it's hard for him to take that time, though, because his brain is working so fast it's more important for him to get his idea out of his noggin and onto the paper or computer screen. Telling him to slow down is actually hampering his ability to get the words/pictures out....so I sometimes let him just misspell, then do the 'whiteboard' thing when we're doing the rewrite.

 

Might be worth a try, and a fair bit cheaper than AAS :D

 

I got these ideas from a book about ADD, actually, as my son show some signs of this.....but learned that many kids labeled ADD are actually just right-brain learners. Almost all ADD children are right-brainers (VSLs).

 

Anyway, sorry so long. This has been a subject I've been immersing myself in....teacher in-service/training...as I prepare this next school year with my boys. Hope something here can help your obviously intelligent girl!

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I was just reading about VSLers and spelling....several books mention using color to help.

******

I got these ideas from a book about ADD, actually, as my son show some signs of this.....but learned that many kids labeled ADD are actually just right-brain learners. Almost all ADD children are right-brainers (VSLs).

 

Anyway, sorry so long. This has been a subject I've been immersing myself in....teacher in-service/training...as I prepare this next school year with my boys. Hope something here can help your obviously intelligent girl!

 

What is the book? Sounds interesting!

[cottagechick]

What is the book? Sounds interesting!

 

Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World

 

Fabulous book!

[MerryAtHope]

One more idea--have her keep a "personal dictionary" of words that she frequently misspells. When you have her go over her work, have her go over it once just to check the words in her dictionary--I'd probably have her do that after she checks for spelling errors in general. Some kids really like the idea of keeping their own dictionary. She could have a page for each letter of the alphabet, or just keep a one-page list.

 

Merry :-)

[Violet Crown]

I like the color-coded visual reinforcement idea (though I'm not sure I will be permitted that kind of time to make up color-coded words!). The personal list of Frequently Misspelled Words is good; I've been keeping such a list, but it hadn't occurred to me to just give it to dd.

 

Thanks!