Can you (and your kids) spell backwards? :D

[Not_a_Number]

Both DD8 and I are visual spellers, and as it turns out... a fun party trick is spelling backwards. If you give me a word, it's very easy for me to "see" it in my head and then just run through the letters from back to front. 

DH, on the other hand, spells just as well as me, but is less visual and therefore has way more trouble with this task. 

[2_girls_mommy]

I have one visual speller who can.  That is how we know she has learned a word, when she can spell it backwards.  The rest of us are "natural" spellers or phonetic spellers, and never worked on this trick, so no, we really can't. 

[historically accurate]

I can do it pretty easily. I can't really "see" the word - but I can work backward along it pretty quickly. I never tried until today though LOL.  

I never learned phonics until I had to teach it, but I am a fantastic speller.

I can mirror write and read upside down and/or backward very easily as well. I wonder if that is related. 

[Not_a_Number]

7 minutes ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

I have one visual speller who can.  That is how we know she has learned a word, when she can spell it backwards.  The rest of us are "natural" spellers or phonetic spellers, and never worked on this trick, so no, we really can't. 

Yeah, I never worked on it, either... I just noticed that I could one day! It's kinda fun if you can do it, but obviously not a very useful skill! 

[Not_a_Number]

1 minute ago, historically accurate said:

I can mirror write and read upside down and/or backward very easily as well. I wonder if that is related. 

Hmmm, I can, too 😄 

[Junie]

Only palindromes.

[lulalu]

Yes, I actually do this all the time. 

After listening to a spelling talk by Mr. Puweda  I started having ds spell words aloud forward and backwards. It has helped his spelling a lot. 

[Not_a_Number]

4 minutes ago, lulalu said:

After listening to a spelling talk by Mr. Puweda  I started having ds spell words aloud forward and backwards. It has helped his spelling a lot. 

Oooh, super interesting!! Do you know HOW this helps him? 

[EKS]

I've never tried it before, but apparently I can do it.

[lulalu]

12 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

Oooh, super interesting!! Do you know HOW this helps him? 

The visualization of the word. You have to hold it in your mind to be able to spell backwards. 

Having ds say it forward and backwards also adds the words having an audio input as well. 

I try to hit all the ways- visual, audio, kinsetic. 

[Not_a_Number]

4 minutes ago, lulalu said:

The visualization of the word. You have to hold it in your mind to be able to spell backwards. 

Super interesting. I didn't realize this was something you could work on 😄 . I'll have to keep this in mind. 

[domestic_engineer]

1 hour ago, lulalu said:

Yes, I actually do this all the time. 

After listening to a spelling talk by Mr. Puweda  I started having ds spell words aloud forward and backwards. It has helped his spelling a lot. 

Same here. We use it a lot here to keep the image in their mind. 
 

I heard about it via Dianne Craft. I think she also suggests to have them visualize the word above them so that their eyes are upward. I also have my kids tap those imaginary letters above them ..... I don’t know if that’s her idea or my modification to try and use the whole body. 

[lulalu]

3 hours ago, domestic_engineer said:

Same here. We use it a lot here to keep the image in their mind. 
 

I heard about it via Dianne Craft. I think she also suggests to have them visualize the word above them so that their eyes are upward. I also have my kids tap those imaginary letters above them ..... I don’t know if that’s her idea or my modification to try and use the whole body. 

Maybe that is who I got it from. I know Andrew Puweda has a spelling talk that I listened to as well. But I also have taken a lot of Diane Craft's ideas as well. 

[Wheres Toto]

I can and I am definitely a visual person.  I sometimes remember things by picturing how it appeared on a page/sign/etc where ever I saw it.  In contrast, I can't remember what someone said to me two minutes ago.  

I haven't asked my kids yet but I would bet ds definitely could and dd probably could.   They are both very good spellers and pretty visual as well. 

[Not_a_Number]

I'm going to have to remember this as a "teaching spelling" trick. I had no idea you could teach kids to do it and it could help... DD8 just does it naturally. 

[SKL]

Yes, though I never really thought about it before.  Another item in my list of useless talents, LOL.

[EKS]

I was lying in bed last night doing spelling backwards instead of sleeping.  I still can't believe that this is a thing I never knew I could do.  I tried it with really long words--like 12 letters long--and it was still no problem.  I think I need to know how to spell the word forwards though in order for it to work--and this isn't a given in my case, as I (likely) have mild dyslexia and have issues with vowels.

[LauraClark]

On 1/7/2021 at 7:17 PM, domestic_engineer said:

Same here. We use it a lot here to keep the image in their mind. 
 

I heard about it via Dianne Craft. I think she also suggests to have them visualize the word above them so that their eyes are upward. I also have my kids tap those imaginary letters above them ..... I don’t know if that’s her idea or my modification to try and use the whole body. 

That is really interesting.  My spelling improved greatly after I learned how to type.  Maybe it's the eyes looking upward.  I also think it's a bit of muscle memory - I'm a pretty fast typer and I play piano so I think that plays a role too.  I literally type words on the table as I think of how to spell them.  I was going to start having ds9 type misspelled words this coming week.  We'll see if that's a help for him too.

As for spelling a word backwards: I can see the words in my head, but I wouldn't be able to rattle them off backwards - I would definitely have to think about it.  I'll have to try this with my older kids.

Edited January 10, 2021 by LauraClark

[Sarah0000]

Yes. My kids and I are strongly visual learners and thinkers. My middle son, who is really good and detailed at drawing, is a natural speller and I think the two are related. My older son, who is good at building and translating/rotating objects, will often spell from the back. He sometimes drops syllables or letters in the middle though.

Now my youngest son is three and is just beginning to read and spell. He puts letters one after the other from front to back. They are often the right letters but usually he puts consonants first then vowels. Maybe he'll end up being more of a phonetic speller? 

[kbutton]

On 1/8/2021 at 8:17 AM, Wheres Toto said:

I can and I am definitely a visual person.  I sometimes remember things by picturing how it appeared on a page/sign/etc where ever I saw it.  In contrast, I can't remember what someone said to me two minutes ago.  

Me too. I think one of my kids could spell backwards but probably not the other. I am not sure I've asked. I learned I could spell backwards playing Cranium, lol! It took a couple of words to get into the groove.

I am super picky about page layout for books because of the bolded. For me, it's not necessarily photgraphic; it's more that all of those visual cues give me more context.

On 1/10/2021 at 7:10 AM, LauraClark said:

 I literally type words on the table as I think of how to spell them.  I was going to start having ds9 type misspelled words this coming week.  We'll see if that's a help for him too.

We use Sequential Spelling, and as soon as the child is fluent in spelling, all the lists are typed to embed the patterns and motor memory into their brains. My kids both have dysgraphia, so it was important to get this right. I think both also spell by patterns in spite of being taught phonics thoroughly, and SS is very pattern based.

[lewelma]

My younger son and I can't even spell forward.  I'm not touching backwards!

[Ausmumof3]

I can but I have to think about it and picture the word so it’s less fluent than forward.  I can also read pretty well from upside down etc.

I might try this with dd it might be good for her

[lewelma]

In highschool I did take all my notes upside down and backwards in cursive. But still spelled forward!

[mathnerd]

On 1/7/2021 at 12:48 PM, historically accurate said:

I can mirror write and read upside down and/or backward very easily as well. I wonder if that is related. 

My son could "mirror write" when he was a toddler. I noticed that he loved to write his name as a mirror image and then I found out that he was equally comfortable reading and writing words in any direction. He is very visual and to him a word is a word, no matter from which direction you looked at it: he used to say that a Dog is a Dog even if you looked at it from the side or from above it. I actually had to work with him until he was 5 to "remediate" his mirror writing and backwards spelling because he did not understand what the big deal was. 

As for me, I used to have photographic memory for words and could spell them accurately after reading them once or twice and I used to be a regular Spelling Bee participant. I could spell backwards with equal ease, but never mirror read or write comfortably. My 11th grade english teacher encouraged me by giving me a phonics book (probably Oxford dictonary) and asked me to learn phonics on my own time and I did. In middle age, after working on non-english (programming) languages for years, I have lost most of my english language related abilities and make so many spelling mistakes that I need auto-correct and Grammarly. I might even rejoice if I did not say "there" instead of "their" in my sentences these days.

[ieta_cassiopeia]

I can spell backwards (spoken and written) because I was deliberately taught how as a speech exercise. Nobody else in my family received that speech exercise, and none of them can spell backwards (or show interest in doing so).

Reading backwards was not taught, and I know I was doing it at 4 1/2 because I learned I was autistic by reading the diagnostician's notes upside-down. (Obviously, I didn't know this was considered a form of eavesdropping at the time, but it came in very handy at university, because it made group collaborations at a table easier to organise).

Edited January 15, 2021 by ieta_cassiopeia

[PeterPan]

On 1/7/2021 at 1:24 PM, Not_a_Number said:

DH, on the other hand, spells just as well as me, but is less visual and therefore has way more trouble with this task. 

Uh, now you're going down the path where you realize your dh is imperfect and start to diagnose. Don't do it, lol.

No seriously, I don't visualize worth two cents and I probably have some funky issues. My convergence is weak (per eye doc), which resulted in me needing progressives earlier. My peripheral vision is junk so now I compensate with a car that has blinky lights in the wings to keep me alive. 

Spelling was the least of my problems. 

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, PeterPan said:

Uh, now you're going down the path where you realize your dh is imperfect and start to diagnose. Don't do it, lol.

Oh, I'm totally not, lol. I think people's brains are somewhat different and we're both within the standard range. We're both able to visualize but I do it better. 

Probably has something to do with how awful DH is at drawing, lol. But otherwise... definitely not diagnosable. At least, not for this reason 😉. 

[Wheres Toto]

So, can most people NOT read upside or mirror images?  I can read upside down just as easily and fast as right side up.  It's come in handy a couple times (I found out a boss I had who was a real jack*** was planning something and I was able to get my paperwork ready before he sprang it on me).  

I know my kids can read upside down at least a little bit, particularly if the print is large enough.  I never thought to ask dh if he could. 

[Not_a_Number]

8 minutes ago, Wheres Toto said:

So, can most people NOT read upside or mirror images?  I can read upside down just as easily and fast as right side up.  It's come in handy a couple times (I found out a boss I had who was a real jack*** was planning something and I was able to get my paperwork ready before he sprang it on me).  

I know my kids can read upside down at least a little bit, particularly if the print is large enough.  I never thought to ask dh if he could. 

I can read upside down but not as fast as I read right side up. I would assume most people can't, though, because it always feels like a super power when I read books to kids at a story time type set up, lol... I don't usually have to look at the book and not let them see it for a moment, since I can read upside down. But I can't do it with very long words or sentences without losing some fluency. 

[ieta_cassiopeia]

Reading upside down is definitely unusual - I've been in a fair few classrooms where nobody else could do it, though I occasionally meet someone else who can (and my board games club has quite a few people who can read upside-down).

It's never occurred to me to ask people outside my family how well they can spell backwards. It's just not something that comes up in conversation...

[Tree Frog]

I can read upside down as long as I don't concentrate on it. If I concentrate, the ability disappears. I think many teachers may be able to do this.

I can's spell backwards. I always wondered if dementia tests really asked the person to say the alphabet backwards. I don't have dementia, but couldn't say it backward if my life depended on it.

[drjuliadc]

I can spell backwards.  It is a little slower though. I don’t know about my kids.  When I see word, I can look away and the picture of the word is still there.  I just read the mental picture of the word, either backward or forward, just like reading it on a page. 

I think I read that is the way good spellers do it.  I was always in the school spelling bee, every single year. I never won though.

I can easily read upside down and I wouldn’t have thought that was rare. When I can do something, I tend to think everyone can do it.

I draw very well, but my mother was a professional illustrator. I am good enough at it to be a professional, but I’m slow and perfectionistic about it, so I would starve. 

I can’t imagine being able to mirror write or write upside down though. That seems like it must be rare.

[lulalu]

A lot of people can read upside down if the print is large enough. When in university for my education major we had a test of reading upside down, out of hundreds only 1 person needed to work on that skill. Many teachers need this skill to work with young ones learning to read. 

[Not_a_Number]

7 minutes ago, lulalu said:

A lot of people can read upside down if the print is large enough. When in university for my education major we had a test of reading upside down, out of hundreds only 1 person needed to work on that skill. Many teachers need this skill to work with young ones learning to read. 

Just tried it with drjuliadc’s post above 😄 . I can read it at normal reading aloud speed, but not at my normal “reading in my head” speed.