Spelling Struggles and the Brain
Spelling struggles are extremely common. The English language doesn’t do us any favors with its abundance of spelling “rules” and exceptions, but for kids especially, grasping accurate and confident spelling skills can feel unreachable. While in the digital age most spelling mistakes are fixed by autocorrect or that squiggly red line that pops up under your mistakes, it’s still important to dig a little deeper if your child is struggling with spelling.
Why Do Kids Need to Know How to Spell?
Basic spelling knowledge is closely linked to core thinking, learning, and reading skills like visual processing, auditory processing, attention, and memory. We’ll dive a little deeper into those in a minute, but in a broader sense it’s important to recognize the importance of being able to spell. Correctly assigning a letter code to a sound that you hear in a word shows a mastery of language that is critical for advancing academically. While you can be a solid reader and a terrible speller, these things often go hand-in-hand.
Accurate spelling of words helps learners be able to see connections between root words, interpret meanings based on familiar patterns, and grow in their own confident self-expression and reading ability. The same skills you use for spelling are the ones you use for decoding unfamiliar words. If your child is struggling with basic spelling mastery, they will likely hit a reading wall at some point as well where they struggle to decode an unfamiliar word.
The Reason for Spelling Struggles: Weak Cognitive Skills
The brain processes all information through a series of cognitive skills. Some of these skills are automatic processing skills (like processing speed and attention), while others are more conscious (like logic and long-term memory). If your child’s spelling struggles continue to frustrate them (and you!) here are some of the most common skills to investigate:
Auditory Processing
This is your brain’s ability to accurately hear a word and manipulate its sounds. If your child frequently switches letters, writes the wrong letter for a sound, or even has trouble just breaking the word into individual sounds, this skill is key.
Working Memory
This skill is your brain’s mental “bucket.” It holds information long enough for you to use it or store it in long-term memory (approx. 5 seconds). If your child loses their place in the word, forgets the task at hand, or seems to struggle to follow a word sequentially beginning to end, this could be the reason.
Attention
People with weak attention skills often skip letters, switch letters around, use the wrong letters, or put them in the wrong order. Their struggles to stay engaged in a task start-to-finish make spelling a struggle, along with their tendency to also deal with long-term memory problems.
Long-Term Memory
This doesn’t just mean what you ate for breakfast 3 days ago. Long-term memory encompasses ALL learned information after it moves out of working memory (anything longer than 5-15 seconds). If your child struggles to remember spelling rules, fails to recognize patterns in words, or even forgets the words they’re supposed to be writing, weakness in this area could be the reason.
Visual Processing
This is your brain’s ability to think in pictures. If your child reads well but struggles with spelling, it could be due to a weakness in not being able to “see” the word they are trying to write. While the foundation of all spelling instruction should be auditory processing, for all of the “exception” words we have in the English language, visualization of these words becomes critical.
Processing Speed
This is the speed that your brain processes information and the world around you. Slow processing speed could be a reason for spelling struggles because the brain becomes inefficient at assigning a letter to a sound. This delay can cause them to guess instead of really using the knowledge they have learned.
Logic & Reasoning
Even though English spelling seems random, there are patterns to learn and recognize. Poor logic skills may make these things impossible for your child to grasp and recognize as they go through school.
Spelling Struggles Are Just Another Signal
If your child struggles with spelling, it is not the end of the world. A lot of kids (and adults) do. However, spelling struggles should be seen as another signal about how the brain is processing the world. If you recognize your child’s struggles in the descriptions of the skills above, it is important to take a deeper look. Spelling is just one manifestation of these skill weaknesses, but these core cognitive skills impact ALL areas of life.
