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Teaching Spell ing
Spelling is a difficult skill to master in the
English language as there are many grammatical rules that need to be
learnt. Before teaching spelling your child must know their
letter sounds
(not to be confused with learning the alphabet, which is required, but
does not help with blending and segmenting words which is necessary for
spelling). You may decide to make a Sound Book for your child, which
could simply consist of an exercise book with a
letter sound
on each page. This way you can practise reading each letter sound daily,
and add a new letter to the book when your child is ready.
Before you start teaching spelling, your child
needs to be able to
read
some words and blend letters together to form words. This can be done
using the phonics method, where children learn the
letter sounds
followed by the letter names.
Once your child can read with some confidence, they are ready to start
learning to spell. Most children are not ready to start learning to
spell before the age of five. When you start teaching your child to
spell talk to them about how words are sounded out by saying each letter
sound and then blending the letter sounds together.
Blending Sounds
As adults we instantly blend letter sounds together when we come to an
unfamiliar word in order to make sense of the word, for example, a new
or unusual name. It is an automatic process which we are not always
aware of doing, but this process of
blending is vital for reading and spelling. This can come naturally to
many children once they have learnt their letter sounds, but for others
it may take more time to develop and require extra support. Your child
may struggle with blending if they are not familiar with the
42 letter
sounds.
Children also need to be trained to read the first letter sound first,
as some children read the last letter sound initially and this leads to
frustration as they cannot then read or spell the word. Plenty of
practise can refine this skill such as through games like
Pass the Word .
Flash Cards
Spelling and
reading can be practised using first word
Everyday Words Flashcards. This
method will encourage your child to hear the sounds in each word and
then blend them together, to read the word which corresponds with the
picture.
Once your child is able to read the words with the
pictures, this can be taken a stage further by covering the picture, so
your child learns to read words, without the need to blend each letter
sound. To develop spelling of these words say the word by segmenting
each letter sound and then encourage your child to have a go at writing
it. For example, ‘cloud’ ‘c’ ‘l’ ‘ou’ ‘d’, encourage your child to count
each letter sound on their finger and identify the number of sounds in
each word e.g c l ou d, has four
sounds. Start with simple two letter words and progress on to three and
four letter words. This is an ideal way of teaching spelling of regular
words which can be spelt by using the
synthetic phonics
method.
Irregular words which do not follow the phonics
system and therefore cannot be easily segmented and spelt are referred to
as
Tricky Words.
These words have irregular spelling patterns which have to be learnt.
Reading and Spelling
If your child brings home a reading book every week
from school, you could take the opportunity to practise spelling
some of the key words from it together. This will not only help your
child with their reading
of more difficult words but also with their letter formation and writing
skills. You may want to incorporate a
Reward or Star
chart
into your spelling sessions, so your child is more motivated to
take part.
There are
lots of ways to make learning to spell fun such as by using:
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