Another Spelling Question -not remembering

[Emagine]

Our new year will begin in Jan. We are in book 2 of AAS. My youngest, I think will do well with any Spelling. He can look at a word, write it, has it down sort of kid. My soon to be 10 year old with Autism is delayed and he suffers here. He is brilliant in other subjects, average in others but spelling he is just not retaining.

 

Before AAS we did A Reason for Spelling. He could do it but it was more busy work than anything.

 

I keep looking at some of the ones mentioned here but wondered if anyone has used a certain spelling pogram that you just had you AHA moment for?

 

Some I have looked at begin cursive. I plan on doing that, just not yet. He is a very visual, audio, but over stimulated with too much on a page kind of kid.

 

 

I am still in search for our AHA program that will work. He has the phonics down, knows those. Just can not put them all together a good bit of the time for a word.

[Ellie]

Spalding might be better than AAS for your older ds (well, actually, for both of your dc), as it really addresses all modalities (visual, kinesthetic, auditory). AAS, which has clear ties to Spalding, does not address the kinesthetic and auditory nearly as well as Spalding does.

[MerryAtHope]

Our new year will begin in Jan. We are in book 2 of AAS. My youngest, I think will do well with any Spelling. He can look at a word, write it, has it down sort of kid. My soon to be 10 year old with Autism is delayed and he suffers here. He is brilliant in other subjects, average in others but spelling he is just not retaining.

 

There can be several reasons for this, and the answer might vary depending on what the reason is. If you are interested in trying to make AAS work since you already have it, here are some things you can try:

 

1, make sure you are making full use of the Review Box. Kids with learning disabilities tend to need lots and lots of review. Don't move a card out of the daily review until he has really mastered it (can answer with little or no hesitation, doesn't self-correct, etc...)

 

I actually further adapted this box for one of my kids by adding in a weekly review. It only takes a few minutes each week to review these extra cards, but after a couple of weeks, I find that he is much more likley to retain the concepts or words long-term. I do the daily review, 2 weeks of weekly review, and 1 monthly review before I put a card in the mastered tab. I also review ALL mastered cards when a mastered review is scheduled. If he misses a card at any point, I put it back in the daily review. It sounds much more confusing than it is--you can see a picture of my box in my blog here.

 

One more idea--I don't move a card out of daily review until a Monday. This way my kids had to remember it over the weekend, and not just from one day to the next. This has also increased retention here.

 

2, If he masters the words in the step but then forgets them later in dictation or in writing outside of spelling, that relates to automaticity . That means--he understands things individually but he is struggling to put it all together. This blog entry has some suggestions to help with that.

 

3, Incorporate more tactile and kinesthetic methods for spelling and spelling review to help reinforce memory.

 

I hope this helps some and that you find a way to help your son! Merry :-)