This is drifting off-topic just a little, so please forgive. But I was curious about speed reading and spelling and spent some time googling. I wasn't sure how fast speed reading is (my son appears to be in the very lower range of speed reading, or the higher range of a fast reader?). But I found an article that mentions a correlation between a dyslexic child and speed reading.
http://www.speedreading4kids.com/add/add.htmlIn Jeffrey Freed's book Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World, he says "While our schools have been harping on the deficits of children with ADD [also Dyslexia], I've had the pleasure of unearthing their many gifts. These children can do difficult math problems in their head, remember long lists of words, and are excellent speed-readers."
It turns out that Dyslexic brains work a little differently than most brains. Most of us are Left-Brain dominant (the Left-Brain is where "normal," slow reading takes place). However, people with Dyslexia are Right-Brain dominant (the Right-Brain is where rapid reading takes place). Since most Dyslexic "wires" are connected on the right side, this is where they tend to be gifted.
I have no idea if my son is dyslexic or not... He sometimes writes his letters backwards, but it happens rarely. He has trouble focusing sometimes, and could be ADD, or it could just be the way he is and how his brain is wired? His spelling is very phonetic (which can be down right odd looking for the English language), even on words that he should know how to spell. But I was very curious about the correlation?
Do any of the kids (or parents) in this group who are spelling-challenged fit into the Right-Brained model? Are the better spellers Left-Brained people? Kriston, you may have been pointing this out before when you mentioned visual-spacial learning. I'm still reading and trying to digest info on visual learning styles, so I'm a little behind on this topic.
