Why Is Spelling So Hard for Some Kids?
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 many 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.
Is It Still Important for Kids to Learn Spelling?
Many schools have moved away from spending time on spelling lists and tests. However, this move has made spelling skills fall through the cracks for lots of students. Since almost everything is digitized, is it really that important to learn how to spell? We argue that it is, and here are a few reasons…
- Many word meanings can be derived from accurate spellings. You see connections between words based on the spelling of their root words, prefixes, and suffixes, so if spelling suffers, so will vocabulary.
- You use the same skills for spelling and decoding new words. Being able to see and hear a word based on its parts is critical for both of these tasks, and weak spelling skills may cause problems with reading as words get more complex.
- Spelling is a natural result of strong auditory processing skills. If kids can accurately identify sounds when reading, they should be able to also write them. Spelling struggles are often a signal that this skill is weak (more on that below).
Spelling Struggles Go Back to the Brain
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 and manipulate sounds in a word. Weaknesses in this skill often look like frequently switching letters, writing the wrong letter for a sound, or even having trouble just breaking the word into individual sounds in the first place.
Working Memory
Working memory 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 they’re trying to spell, 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
Long-term memory encompasses anything you’ve taken in beyond when it’s in your working memory (so anything longer than just a few 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.
Brain Training to Build Reading & Spelling Skills
More spelling instruction is not necessarily the answer to making your kids better spellers. Instead, focusing on these core learning skills is crucial! Helping your child grow their own ability to confidently read, segment a word, spell it, and write it begins with looking at how their brain is learning in the first place.
Our cognitive skills assessment investigates each of these skills to help you uncover the “why?” Every struggle with learning is unique, so every approach to strengthening these skills also has to be personalized. At LearningRx, our one-on-one approach allows us to target each client’s unique strengths and weaknesses to enable them to reach their fullest potential.
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