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Spelling struggles


Mama2four
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My 13 yo son has always, always struggled with spelling. I mostly taught him to read with Phonics Pathways, and only used SWR and now AAS for spelling. He is on level 2 AAS step 6. I've done everything as instructed, segmenting sounds, open & closed syllables, finger spelling. Here is how he spelled bonus: bouns. He spelled depend as dpent. He knows what vowels are and every syllable has at least one vowel. He can tell me how many syllables a word has most of the time. When he was younger, he had a difficult time with rhyming, and he didn't become a good reader until about a year ago. He wants to rush through his work, and he doesn't like to listen to me dictate the words SWR style, but he doesn't want to use the AAS tiles either. Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated.

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Based on your description, your son has many signs of dyslexia: spelling difficulties, reading difficulties, leaving out vowels sounds, mixes up letters within a word, etc.

 

Here are the warning signs of dyslexia:

http://www.bartonreading.com/pdf/Dys%20warning%20signs.pdf

 

If you need more info about dyslexia, try this link:

http://www.dys-add.com/index.html

 

If your child is dyslexic, research shows an Orton-Gillingham method is best to teach reading/spelling. There are several such programs listed here:

http://www.dys-add.com/getHelp.html#anchorOrtonSystems

 

Many on this board have used the Barton program, such as myself, with great success.

 

Of course, your child could have other/different issues. I am just basing my comments on your brief description. That's why I'd encourage you to look closely at the warning signs, and if there are many, then learn more about dyslexia from the link above.

 

Hope that helps!

Carolyn

 

 

My 13 yo son has always, always struggled with spelling. I mostly taught him to read with Phonics Pathways, and only used SWR and now AAS for spelling. He is on level 2 AAS step 6. I've done everything as instructed, segmenting sounds, open & closed syllables, finger spelling. Here is how he spelled bonus: bouns. He spelled depend as dpent. He knows what vowels are and every syllable has at least one vowel. He can tell me how many syllables a word has most of the time. When he was younger, he had a difficult time with rhyming, and he didn't become a good reader until about a year ago. He wants to rush through his work, and he doesn't like to listen to me dictate the words SWR style, but he doesn't want to use the AAS tiles either. Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated.
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I don't know if Lips is used for telling apart e and i. My son was actually fine with e and i, but I have seen that mentioned before, but I don't know what is specifically recommended for it.

 

My son did have what can be called "confusion" or "sound discrimination" problems.

 

He did speech therapy that is like Lips, they teach kids to associate the shape their mouth makes with the sounds and with the letters (this is my understanding).

 

It might not really address more than that issue for your son, if he is already able to segment and blend and tell apart the other sounds.

 

Just in general you can have him look in the mirror as he makes the sounds, and try to see if he can tell the difference that way. There was a little page of recommondations on how to do that in Phonics A-Z by Wiley Blevins -- available at my library (not recommending to buy it). I think he said you can have kids touch their chin or lips while looking at the mirror, and see if they can associate one mouth shape with the letter, as a way to scaffold hearing the difference.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=101707

 

That is another thread I found just searching e and i confusion. (Searching "short vowel discrimination" seems to have a lot of results, also, if you ever wondered what a good term would be -- I wonder that kind of thing.)

 

My son confused several consonants and had speech articulation problems b/c of it, severe enough for him to have private speech therapy paid for by husband's insurance. So, not the same as e/i, but for him he did need to work on the sound discrimination to make any kind of progress (and to even learn about 10 of his letters!).

 

edit: Just my two cents about the e/i thing... I agree it sounds like it could be dyslexia and OG-style instruction is recommended very highly.

 

Also - - I did tokens with my son for a while.... he is younger, though. But when it is hard I think a lot of immediate positive feedback can be good. But then you want to have something he can succeed with, too, if that is part of the problem. It is hard to know. But if he is working very hard then I do think tokens or rewards are good, and give tokens even for just a good try (but not a right answer). I give "good attitude" and "good paying attention" tokens if it is looking ugly (aka he is just not quite getting it) and try to do what I can to let him have success, by asking him things he can do. He is having an easier time just now so I have phased all that out, but when/if he gets to another point that is hard, I am hoping to use those same tactics again. I learned a lot from observing his private speech -- they are very positive and always giving him a reward (like a snack or letting him pick a short game to play).

Edited by Lecka
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My 13 yo son has always, always struggled with spelling. I mostly taught him to read with Phonics Pathways, and only used SWR and now AAS for spelling. He is on level 2 AAS step 6. I've done everything as instructed, segmenting sounds, open & closed syllables, finger spelling. Here is how he spelled bonus: bouns. He spelled depend as dpent. He knows what vowels are and every syllable has at least one vowel. He can tell me how many syllables a word has most of the time. When he was younger, he had a difficult time with rhyming, and he didn't become a good reader until about a year ago. He wants to rush through his work, and he doesn't like to listen to me dictate the words SWR style, but he doesn't want to use the AAS tiles either. Any advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated.

Did he spell that way on a spelling test, or were those examples you find in his other writing? Either way, if you haven't had him ever tested for dyslexia, I'd say it's time.

 

It sounds like you used strong phonics methods appropriate for many people with dyslexia. SWR is based off Orton-Gillingham methods, although it's not strictly an O-G program and it moves faster than some people with dyslexia can move. He might be trying to spell faster than he can move too. Ask him to slow down and check his work.

 

Since he's having a hard time distinguishing vowel sounds, he might benefit from extra work on phonemic awareness. That foundational skill for reading and spelling that is ofen lacking in people with dyslexia. Yet once it's remediated, spelling can still be a lingering problems, (at least I tell myself that to justify giving other people spelling advice.;))

 

Since he's thirteen, if you haven't already done so, you might also look at teaching him typing with spell check. Continue to work with him on spelling, but you might ask a dyslexia specialist to take a closer look to get more specific advice and to get the paperwork rolling in case he needs documentaion for accomodations in the future.

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  • 5 months later...

He still had difficulty distinguishing between the short vowel sounds of i and e. It doesn't help that we have Texas accents, lol. But I do the "think to spell" way. He will almost always use the wrong vowel every time.

 

LOL! When we lived in the south, my oldest insisted that his Sunday School lesson was about, "The woman and the whale". You know... From the book of John! His southern born and bred tea her got a kick out of that. :)

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