Is All About Spelling Right for My Child?

It is such a joy to teach children who are natural spellers! They intuitively pick up spelling patterns, and if you explain a rule, they “get it” right away. Very little review is required, and spelling lessons seem effortless. My daughter was one of these natural spellers.

All About Spelling is perfect for the natural speller. You can move as quickly as your child is able to, while being assured that nothing is skipped.

If your intuition tells you that your child is ready for spelling, you are probably right! If you want more information—or want to confirm your suspicions—check out this post.

First, please know that this is perfectly normal. Reading is easier for most kids, but good reading doesn’t always translate into good spelling.

This article explains in detail why reading is easier than spelling.

By focusing on spelling separately than reading, you can give special attention to those things that will improve your child’s spelling—and make spelling easier. She’ll learn spelling rules she can rely on. She’ll practice what she’s learned so it becomes ingrained in her long-term memory. She’ll gain confidence as she learns why words are spelled the way they are. Then one wonderful day, you’ll both realize that spelling is no longer a struggle!

Give your kid a hug for me! It isn’t his fault that he is a horrible speller. Most likely, his current spelling program has failed him.

Maybe his previous spelling program wasn’t logical. Maybe it had big gaps that he couldn’t fill in on his own. Maybe it taught too many concepts at one time, or maybe it didn’t teach the spelling strategies that he needed. Most likely, his old spelling program taught a list once and then moved on, never to review it again.

So now’s the time to fill in those gaps! All About Spelling makes that really easy to do, even for older students.

My heart goes out to you and your child! When a child hates spelling, it is often because he feels stupid, frustrated, and embarrassed. I’ve seen it over and over: kids who fight against spelling just aren’t being taught in a way that they can understand.

I originally created All About Spelling for my son, who was a struggling learner. We had tried everything, but nothing was working. It was a long road—as I explain in this video—but I was finally able to turn the situation around. And what made the difference? Logical, multisensory lessons that teach one concept at a time, plus carefully sequenced lessons that are mastery-based so children can progress at their own pace.

With All About Spelling, children finish their lessons feeling successful and confident. So instead of being a dreaded subject, spelling can become a favorite subject—or at least a tolerable one!

(You might also be interested in the article “Ideas for Handling Tears and Frustration.”)

This is so frustrating for both you and your child! But we can solve it. Several things may be at the heart of your child’s “forgetfulness.”

First, if your child often misspells certain words, it is likely that he has not learned to segment words and hear each sound in a word. And if he can’t hear each sound in the word, he can’t represent the sounds with the correct letter combinations, or phonograms. That is why segmenting and teaching phonograms play such a major part in the All About Spelling program.

But there’s another factor at play. It can be hard for children to remember material that has not been reviewed. The All About Spelling program helps children remember concepts through continual review of previously learned rules and words, even basic ones. Continual review permanently ingrains instruction into children’s brains and, with the All About Spelling program, it only takes two minutes of review per day to make that happen!

If you think your child has memory issues, be sure to download my free report called Help Your Child’s Memory for practical tips.

Believe it or not, there is a term for this phenomenon: your child has “hit the wall.” This often happens at the third or fourth grade level. Up until this point, many students are able to memorize spelling lists through rote memorization. But there are only so many words that a person can memorize this way, and at higher grades, the words naturally get harder. Your child just can’t jump the hurdle, so she hits the wall instead. At this point, spelling struggles begin to affect a child’s writing ability, and she begins to try to bluff her way through by guessing at how unfamiliar words are spelled, which leads to many mistakes.

It’s a scary time for kids who never learned “why” words are spelled the way they are. After all, more composition is being required of them, but they can’t spell the words with confidence. A downward spiral starts: lack of ability leads to lack of confidence, which in turn leads to stress and avoidance. Without intervention, poor spelling and a lack of confidence in writing will plague students their entire lives.

But All About Spelling is exactly what a discouraged and uncertain student needs. Our lessons are step by step and mastery-based so your child will gain confidence in spelling every step of the way. In our program, once your child has mastered spelling words using letter tiles, we make spelling dictation a part of every lesson. This continual reinforcement of what has been learned builds confidence in writing and spelling.

All About Spelling was originally created for kids who struggle with spelling (including my own child), so you can be confident that we keep special needs in mind every step of the way.

In addition, the following articles address specific learning difficulties:

• Auditory processing disorder
• Autism
• Down Syndrome
• Dysgraphia
• Dyslexia