Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Spelling (not) an indicator?

Well DD8 just picked it up from reading. I haven't thought about it for DD6. It wouldn't be my favorite thing to do with them, though. Maybe I should consider it for DD6, but I'm kind of waiting to see if it's necessary.

My DS5 learned to read without any phonics at age 4. He started with sight words and now whenever he comes across a new word he asks me what it is and then never stumbles again. IMO, he is not a good speller. I really don't have a lot to compare him to though. He did get a SS of 123 on the WJ-III (94%) at age 5 years 1 month. I am very curious to see how he does in spelling when he actually gets to attend school.

I have never been a good speller but I am a super fast reader and read a lot as a child. I LOVE me some spell check.

I have enjoyed reading all the mixed up words/sentences in this thread. I guess I now know that I misspell on this board, I better make sure at least the first and last letter are correct and no one will mind.

LOL! Good thinking! Forget spell check--first and last is all you need. ROFL!

These responses are all interesting to me - sounds like everyone's different. I'm not going to worry about it at all. Since DS taught himself how to read, i'll let him figure out how to spell too, if he wants to, before he hits school. (of course if he asks, I will help by at least telling him to get the first and last letters right.)

I tried to think back to my own spelling beginnings, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. The only thing I remember about spelling when I was little was that i wanted to know the right way to spell things, not how they sounded.

I never have taught DS4 spelling (of course I never taught him reading either and he is great at that). I answer him when he asks how to spell words. He usually doesn't ask that much...and typically spells things right. I figure there will be plenty of time for spelling. It does seem to come naturally to him, as most things do. Very different from me...I wasn't advanced although I was always a pretty good speller.

Sorry, jumping on a little late here ...

Kriston, I'm *exactly* the same way. I'm a phenomenal speller on paper, but I cannot for the life of me spell even simple words out loud. In my former life, I was a copy editor (and a good one, I might add) ... but put me in a spelling bee and I'm done. I need to *see* the word, and I can see the error. But I can't do it out loud.

I'm a super-fast reader, and ds6 is the same way -- he read all six Kirsten American Girl books in 75 minutes. I even questioned him -- he read them all! He's a whole word reader for the most part, and I think his spelling is the same as mine. We just *see* the error.

Dottie -- I *loved* Ender's Game. What a great book.

BTW, DS6 had no trouble with that excerpt. He asked about 3 words, one of which was Cambridge, and that's an exposure thing. He thought it was really cool!

Funny you should mention this my DS is the same way his hand writing looks psychotic and i can hardly get him to write anything however the boy can build a computer in his sleep so i have to pick my battles in that arena. Not to mention i was looking through his room and I found an index card on it with handwriting nicer than mine. The card held game codes for Grand Theft Auto, and my boy had written them with his own hand. So it wasn't that he couldn't do it just that he didn't find it necessary for which i am thankful.