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Spelling HelpSpelling Help . . . Take an interest in what your child is doing at school and be there for them. If a child feels good about himself, he will be in a better position to survive the ups and downs of school. If your child has spellings to learn, support them with this process. The 'Look, Cover Write, Check' process has been found to be most effective in helping people learn the spelling of words. Look carefully at the word (the letter order/ any words within words eg. end in friend) Cover the word up Write the word down Check the word has been written correctly Write spellings on strips of paper, mix the papers up, turn them face down and try and remember where on the table each word is. You could arrange the words in alphabetical order. The child could pick a strip, you read it, they spell it. Ask your child a spelling when they least expect it - in the bath perhaps or when they're helping in the kitchen! Don't bombard them - keep the atmosphere light. Some spellings are just plain tricky. If there is a word that is causing your child particular problems then be inventive in helping them to remember the order of letters. In English schools, 'because' is often remembered by the mnemonic: big elephants can always understand small elephants I once taught a child who had trouble remembering the soft 'c' in December. There was no problem with the 'ber' at the end - it was just the beginning that gave her problems. Once we thought of the following mnemonic featuring her Mum, Donna, she no longer had trouble: Donna eats cake every month + ber If your child has problems with a specific word, be inventive! Only do it occassionally though - too many things to remember may overload a child. There are some amazing free online games - try Spin Top Games; commercial games such as Boggle and Scrabble; pen and paper games such as Hangman; even games such as I Spy help create a spelling awareness. Instead of first letters, you could suggest the first syllable eg. car (for carpet); tel (for television); pi (piano). Remember a syllable is a beat or a clap in a word. tel - e - vi - sion = so television has four syllables. 'Spelling' can become a list of isolated words with no context. Avoid this by writing notes to one another, encourage story writing, buy lovely pens and paper to use, have magnetic letters or words on the fridge and make silly sentences. There are some great CD Roms available such as WordShark that will really offer some practical and effective spelling help. These are used in schools (I have my own copy) and many parents are buying them for home use. Wordshark is very clearly organised into word families (th, ch, sh, oo, etc), but also has groups of subject related words for older children and adults (eg. science based words, words useful in history topics and so on). Best of all there are loads of games to help the consolidation process. And in addition, once each game is completed, there is a special reward game which is nothing to do with spelling! Just plain good fun! If you're looking for a tutor, make sure they teach spelling in a cumulative, structured way. Children who need spelling help require a step by step approach with lots of time to consolidate what they’ve learned. Spelling Help Online Homepage |
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