Spelling - www.LearningAbledKids.com

Children with dyslexia are notoriously bad spellers. Teaching a child with dyslexia to spell requires diligence and the usage of multisensory programs that provide specific, sequential, direct instruction in all aspects of spelling. Often, teaching a child spelling can produce added reading ability as well. The following are some specific, sequential programs for teaching reading and spelling to children with specific learning disabilities. Hopefully one of them will suit your child's needs.

For starters, you might find my LearningAbledKids' Phonogram Tiles (large download 317k) to be helpful when teaching word building and segmenting. This is a PDF document you can download and print. You can either print them on card stock, then cut them out, or you can print them on regular paper and use the peel'n'stick laminating sheets to make the tiles more durable and to make them slide around easily when manipulating. I printed them on card stock, laminated them, and then cut them out. They held up quite well! You can use these tiles for teaching your child many literacy skills. (continued below..)

An important factor for remembering how to spell a word is the auditory component. A child should speak spelling words out loud when practicing. A great resource for auditory practice is SpellingCity.com - This clever and FREE website is a fun way to have your child practice any spelling list you create. SpellingCity.com provides spelling practice through games and has humanly-spoken prompts. The games can add a 'fun' factor typically missing in spelling practice. There are a large number of spelling lists you can select from or you can create one for your child. When we first discovered SpellingCity.com, we spent time there "just playing"! I recommend making this site a fun part of your spelling practice routine.

The studies I read on spelling in Graduate school showed that self-correcting one's own spelling can also be one of the most effective long-term means for improving spelling skills. By self-correcting, the child works on words he doesn't know how to spell. Also, through repeated misspellings, and a desire to prevent facing the same words repeatedly, the child will remember them better. Although correcting is a relatively tedious process, it does 1) Inspire him to try harder to spell correctly when initially writing, and 2) Is teaching him valuable editing skills in correcting his own work. Spelling will improve over time, but it is rather slow going because generally children with dyslexia don't love writing (and no wonder.. since the process is so tedious).

I recommend you start by having the child correct the first two sentences in a piece of writing, then move to the first paragraph as the child develops better self-correction skills. Then move to two paragraphs.. And on up to correcting the whole paper. Once the child has gotten the "process" of self-correcting and using a dictionary mastered, it won't take long to correct the spelling. Your child may still make a lot of spelling errors, but he will become much more efficient at correcting them, which is a highly valuable skill later in life. ;-)

When correcting spelling, your child may often need phonemically based assistance so I recommend using a word processor with spell checker, a dictionary, and a Franklin Speller. When the child writes something, and it is underlined in red in the word processor, he then uses his Franklin speller to find the correct spelling. If there are multiple choices, he looks them up in the dictionary to see which one is the right one.

If you feel a need to supplement with a formal spelling program, here are several programs that may be beneficial:

Megawords *** THIS PROGRAM IMPROVED MY CHILD'S SPELLING MORE THAN ANY OTHER PROGRAM WE TRIED *** Megawords is a comprehensive step-by-step program tauted for grades 4 and up, although a child MUST have basic elementary reading skills prior to using Megawords. This program teaches reading and spelling of multi-syllable words. This program is a great one to use when Explode the Code (above) moves into multi-syllable words. I like this program because it is very explicit, sequential instruction that does not assume the child will be able to fill-in-the-blanks. With additional multi-sensory activities in the teachers guides, this is one of the few programs that can truly help a child with dyslexia improve both their reading and their spelling.
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Calvert Interactive Spelling and Vocabulary CD-Rom - Each CD is designed as a one year course of daily lessons in Spelling & Vocabulary. Grammar is added to the package for grades 6-7. Students can skip around from spelling to vocabulary to grammar drills disguised as games. These spelling CDs will delight students who need or want spelling practice and are comfortable at the computer. Parents say Calvert's CD-Rom's are a must-have for reluctant spellers.

Phonetic Zoo - Institute for Excellence in Writing - This is NOT a 'beginning' spelling program. The words in the first level of the program are near a typical fourth grade level. Most importantly, The Phonetic Zoo has a unique way of presenting words, which may be helpful for older spellers who have difficulty spelling. "When we look at a word we see it as a whole. But spelling is sequential, and the correct sequence can be missed when seen as a whole. Spelling the word out loud, letter by letter, ensures accurate storage of the correct sequence in the brain. Hence, auditory input is the best possible way to store spelling information accurately." The program is primarily auditory in nature, but uses clever images and catchy phrases to provide children with memory triggers. "The Phonetic Zoo combines phonetic spelling rules with the theme of animals and a zoo to illustrate the spelling rules." The Phonetic Zoo comes in three levels. Each level uses the same spelling rules but with more difficult words presented at the upper levels.

Read, Write, & Type - "This 40-lesson adventure is a software tool for 6-8 year olds just learning to read, for children of other cultures learning to read and write in English, and for students of any age who are struggling to become successful readers and writers. Children learn phonics, reading, spelling, writing, vocabulary, punctuation, and even keyboarding. Children see, hear, speak, touch, and move their fingers as they play each new level in this multisensory program."

AVKO Sequential Spelling - This is a sequential spelling program based upon multisensory teaching methods. It is a step-by-step program utilizing "word families" rather than phonemes. Many parents find this program to be easy to use and enjoyable for their child. This program is only available directly from AVKO.

Natural Speller - This is a sequential spelling program designed for children who don't respond to "ordinary" teaching methods. "Everything necessary for spelling instruction for grades 1-8 is included in this book. Basic word lists are given for each grade with words containing similar patterns grouped together. Special word lists (e.g., calendar words, contractions, measurements, homophones, latin roots)) are also provided. Kathryn Stout strongly advocates keeping separate those words with similar sounds which are formed by different letter combinations (e.g., though, bow, sole). Lessons can be developed from the word lists or with words of your own choosing. Instructions are provided for teaching spelling and for studying words. (This is not a student text but a parent/teacher resource book.) Spelling rules are provided with charts that include suffixes and prefixes along with phonic and writing rules."

Writing Road to Reading - This is a sequential program based upon Orton-Gillingham teaching methods. The Spalding Method helps train the right and left sides of the brain as children see, hear, read, and write. It is cost-effective and efficient; students use pencils, paper, and their minds. Children learn to connect speech sounds to print and begin to write and read.

Spell to Write and Read - This is a sequential spelling program based upon Orton-Gillingham teaching methods. The program is designed to bring children to a competent level of reading and writing by teaching spelling as a primary subject. The program comes highly recommended by many parents of children with learning difficulties. The sequential, and individually targeted nature of the program lends itself to remedial learning. (continued below..)

Teaching Phonics & Word Study in The Intermediate Grades - This is a program book I found and LOVE. It is a detailed guide for teaching your child the ins and outs of reading and spelling. The book is geared towards students who know the elementary basics of reading and spelling (single letter sounds). If you are clueless about where to begin in helping your child move forward into the rhelm of proficient reading and spelling, then this book is a wealth of information to guide you.
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Explode the Code - A comprehensive step-by-step program that aids a child with both spelling and reading. This program starts with the basics and is highly recommended for anyone starting out. This is probably one of the most comprehensive commercially available programs on the market that won't cost you an arm and a leg. If you combine the teachings of Explode the Code with multi-sensory methods, you will have a great program.
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Spelling Power - Spelling Power is a very popular program for teaching spelling. I've not used it myself, but have looked at the books and materials. This program utilizes a more traditional test-study-retest program. More than 5000 words are covered through the program, making it a robust program that will cover spelling for multiple years.
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Dr. Fry's Spelling - A sequential program based on phonics that will enable your child to learn the structure of the American English language. As with the other sequential programs, this program will also assist your child with reading.
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Spelling Workout - This spelling program uses a sports theme to give students the tools they need for success. Capitalizing on the close tie between spelling and phonics, the program leads students from simple sound-letter relationships to more complex spelling patterns. The Teacher's Edition provides detailed lesson plans for either a 3-day or 5-day plan.

Phonics Pathways - Teaches students of all ages the rudiments of phonics and spelling with an efficient, practical method. Written in an easy-to-use format, Phonics Pathways is organized by sounds and spelling patterns. The patterns are introduced one at a time and slowly built into syllables, words, phrases, and sentences. Phonics Pathways is filled with illustrative examples, word lists, and practice readings that are 100 percent decodable. While appropriate for K-2 emergent readers, this award-winning book has also been used successfully with adolescent and adult learners.

Spectrum Spelling - The Spectrum Spelling program is an easy to use program that teaches the concepts behind word building. This enables a child to develop an understanding of how spelling works. Building on spelling skills will help with reading as well.
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Spelling by Sound and Structure (Rod and Staff Mennonite, Anabaptist Publishing) - This spelling program is not based upon multisensory teaching methods, but is very sequential. The program teaches spelling from a number of angles--synonyms, antonyms, definitions, picture clues, context clues, and categories of words, phonetic patterns as beginning and ending sounds, long and short vowels, consonant blends, digraphs, double consonants, syllables, plurals, verb forms, Latin and Greek roots, etc.

Here are some additional tools that may be helpful to you: