Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy First writing of words, when/how to help/mistakes

Hi all, I am very excited that dd4 is writing her first words these last few weeks, and really seeming to enjoy it.
She is sounding things out very well, and I want to encourage her, so for now am not pointing out that although a word is spelled phonetically correctly, it might not be right for English.
How does this awareness develop in a child, mainly as they read more and more? If that is the case I am assuming it is ok to continue to encourage her attempts and mostly leave it at that (I might point out if she's left a sound out altogether, and so far she is receptive of these minor comments).
I just don't want to get all complicated on her as she is coming out of her shell on this. Thoughts?

thanks

firstly--> yeah yeah for writing, it is so cool when they learn a new way to communicate.

my twin girls were busy writing up a storm when they were 4 and I approached both very differently when it came to spelling. One of mine is a rote learner with 100% accuracy--> so if she wrote "happee" and I never corrected it then it would be imbedded in her brain for ever that "happy" was spelt "happee" and it took more work and less enjoyment to correct it later than to just correct on the spot. The other twin was a girl who learns through praise praise praise and even a bit of praze (any spelling was encouraged). Both also needed an explanation, which is where I struggled a bit, they needed explicit "rules" to follow so that they would spell everything correctly first time every time. The best approach was simply to down tools for the week and do a crash course in spelling rules to avoid any frustration. They loath "exceptions to the rule" or mom/mum, color/colour type variations.

So a few tips:
*crash course in spelling rules
*lots of phonics games
*sight words just need to be rote learnt and I just found it best to have a chart of the 100 most tricky common english words and every time they were trying to write one of those they used the chart and knew not to use a phonetic approach (because it will never work)
*make sure it is well imbedded that many letter/s combinations make the same sound like g, j, dge or c, k, ck, or ee, ea, ie, ei, ey, y, etc etc and that failure to guess the correct one is more than likely to happen because the english language is crazy

I agree though, that the easiest way to address spelling is through reading--> they can spell years ahead of their peers now simply as they have read 100 times the volume.

I second the idea about books if your children are very visual. DS6 learned to read by 2, and has spelled the vast majority of his words right since he started writing stories at 4. He was a "whole language" learner and never ever studied phonics, other than what he might catch on "Between the Lions." For visual learners, the link between reading and writing can be very strong.

If your children aren't visual learners and/or need more phonics, I strongly suggest readingeggs.com. My 2 year old occasionally plays that online reading game and LOVES it! They start with basic letter sounds (which you can skip over), and now he's connecting words and word families. For ex, yesterday he learned "it," and all the words in the word family that go with it. If your children are above that, you can set the level higher to their level. Once you hit lesson 60, they also have spelling games for this level. Mine is only at lesson 50, though, so we haven't been able to check that out yet. They also have worksheets tied to each lesson. The only problem is that you can only access the worksheet of the lesson you are currently on.

The program is designed to start at age 4-5, and I think there are 110 lessons now that go through 2nd grade level. I sent the info to my mom's elementary school, and the kindergartners there love it too.

Ditto on memorizing sight words. Your child will need to know them, they're full of spelling exceptions anyway, and memorizing them will do worlds for your child's confidence, especially because it will facilitate spelling simple sentences early on. For my son, I used the Dolch sight word lists and went through them grade by grade.

I think it's helpful to present similar words together, another way to build ability and confidence at once. For example when we were covering "-tion", I presented "friction", "suction", etc. together because they were impossible to get wrong, gave speed practice in basic spelling rules, and built confidence. Another thing I used to do was cover all forms of a word together.

I also think it can be helpful to introduce roots early. It doesn't take any special lesson plan, just keeping in mind what words she currently knows, and what words will be in her ability level that share the same root/prefix/suffix. For example, I knew that my son already had "octopus" and "octagon" in his spoken/reading vocabulary, and they were both easy spelling words rules~wise, so those wound up in a spelling miniilesson.

It seems to keep spelling stress low to sprinkle many mini~lessons throughout the day. So, while reading: "Look at that word! It's a great word, and similar to [other word] that we learned last week. I'll give you a moment to look at it carefully, then can you look away and spell it?"

As my son's confidence and ability increased, I began giving him multiple words to spell. One way I did this was after he'd just finished a reading comprehension lesson, while the words were fresh in his head, I'd circle 5-10 interesting words and let him study them all together, then take the sheet away and quiz him, with a prize if he got them all right first try (the bar can of course be lowered depending on perfectionism/frustration level with the activity).

We bought a $5 dry-erase board with marker at a local Rite-Aid pharmacy, which has one white side and one side with writing lines. I used this to write silly sentences, and he would re-write them. Then we'd practice spelling the tougher words without looking. This was one way we worked on spelling and writing at once.

ETA: Sorry for any typos (typing on my phone). Also, I agree with the idea of correcting mistakes, ALWAYS. I don't want my son memorizing incorrect spellings, and taking a gentle correction doesn't have to lead to stress.