Spelling Challenges (Cross Posted)

[NewIma]

My dd9 (4th grade) can read on grade level but cannot spell. We have tried several different spelling programs (none of which worked for her) and finally settled on Apples and Pears a year ago. We are taking it very very slow and often have to go back and repeat the last 10 lessons. She is improving slowly, but she is very far behind. I would say she spells on a 1st-2nd grade level. She has also recently become aware that she is behind her peers and I am worried about her self confidence. 

 

 

So, is there anything else I can add or be doing to help her skills improve? If we are making progress, do I really need to be panicking, or can I just continue on our path? I was anxious, but not panicked before she became aware of her ability compared to her peers, but because she is making progress I was ok with it. Now that she mentioned that she is behind her friends (she thinks it is because she is homeschooled so that is great! lol) I am feeling very panicky and wondering if I need to add something else. And how can I explain to her that people learn at different speeds? I have to admit that I am also afraid of her teachers outside the home judging our homeschooling on her spelling ability. 

 

Thank you for any advice and insight!

 

[PeterPan]

Honestly, at that point I'd get some evals.  Have you had her eyes checked?  By a developmental optometrist?  She may have developmental vision problems affecting her visual memory.  What happens if you do the spelling aloud, like Phonetic Zoo (Pudewa)?  If she still can't get the spelling, even with that, it's time for evals.  You want achievement testing, IQ (to look for discrepancy), and a CTOPP (for phonological processing, for dyslexia).  

 

When was her last standardized testing?  Without that, you don't have an objective measure of where her reading or spelling is.  And even with that, standardized tests, for the most part, don't give you actual grade levels.  They just tell you at what grade level that score would have been the 50th percentile.  The Woodcock Johnson and the WIAT both give actual grade levels.  You want something like that.  I just had a reading tutor run the DAR on my ds as well as a fresh CTOPP.  Cost me $75.  

 

With that much discrepancy and frustration, you want to get to the bottom of what's going on.  

[NewIma]

Thank you for the imput! I reread my post and think I was more negative in my wording than is an accurate reflection of reality. My moment of panic and hormones got the better of me. Once I calmed down and looked at her books, I realized how much progress she really has made. I think we will keep doing what we are doing and keep testing as a future option if she stops improving. Thanks so much! 

[Storygirl]

It's okay to be concerned. It's good to think it through.

 

Think a little bit about her reading. My daughter can read on grade level now (though learning to read was extremely difficult), but her spelling is horrible. She has dyslexia. Did your daughter learn to read via phonics? Can she sound out unfamiliar words successfully, or does she resist sounding things out and want to guess? My daughter has fabulous comprehension and can predict through context what word should be coming next in a story or a paragraph, so she can read silently to herself and understand the gist of the text. But when reading aloud, she will substitute incorrect words or stumble over pronunciation or skip words, because she cannot accurately decode everything.

 

I have another daughter who does not have dyslexia but is not a great speller. In her case, she was an early reader who nevertheless could have used more phonics help than she got (because I was busy with her younger siblings, and once she could read, she did more of her work independently with less direct instruction from me).

 

If you think about her reading and see that it is NOT as solid as it appears, I would consider some evaluations to see if there is an underlying phonological impairment. Earlier intervention is better, so it is worth looking into. Sometimes people refer to "stealth dyslexia" where a student seemed to be a good reader when younger but begins to struggle in late elementary years when the demands of reading increase. You can google "stealth dyslexia" to see if anything rings a bell.

 

If she can read anything, even nonsense words, with correct decoding, when given no context clues (as in, write the word on a flashcard or paper by itself), then I would just keep plugging away at phonics based spelling.

[sbgrace]

I'm glad you feel more encouraged. Apples and Pears did help my weak speller progress.

 

That you regularly need to go back and re-do lessons with the amount of repetition built into Apples and Pears would concern me re: maybe wanting to pursue some testing so I knew what I was dealing with. Are you working it daily? How slowly/how many days per lesson? Is it possible the speed is too slow for the repetition in the program to cement things? 

 

My son has a really weak visual memory for words. Explaining to him that he needed to be able to see the word in his mind using words he can and can't visualize, and incorporating visualizing the word and spelling it backward, helped--though this is forever a problem area for him.

 

Progress is what's important, I agree.