15 Ways to Support Kids Who Leave Out, Change, or Reorganize Letters or Pieces of Sound While Spelling

Are you looking for ways to support kids who leave out, change, or reorganize letters or pieces of sound while writing? If so, keep reading.

1. Give magnetic or felt letters for the student to correctly sequence into spelling words.

2. Teach the student spelling ideas at each level before introducing a new skill level.

3. Create a list of the words the student misspells by omitting, substituting, adding, or rearranging letters or sound units. Get the student to practice spelling the words correctly. Remove each word from the list as the student shows mastery.

4. Provide commercial or teacher-made games that give practice spelling. The student should have a personalized list of words for this practice.

5. Make the student use the dictionary to find the correct spelling of any words they cannot spell correctly. Emphasize spelling accurately.

6. Get the student to find a list of words (e.g., 5, 10, or 15 words) each week to learn to spell (e.g., if the student is interested in cars, find words from automotive magazines, advertisements, etc.).

7. Utilize daily drills to help the student memorize spelling words.

8. Find those words the student misspells by omitting, substituting, adding, or rearranging letters or sound units. Get the student to start and regularly update a personalized dictionary with the words they misspell to use as a reference.

9. Praise the student for spelling words correctly: (a) give the student a concrete reward (e.g., classroom privileges, line leading, 10 minutes of free time, etc.) or (b) give the student an informal reward (e.g., praise, handshake, smile, etc.).

10. Make sure the student correctly hears those letters or sound units omitted, substituted, added, or rearranged when spelling words. Get the student to say the words aloud to ascertain if the student is aware of the letters or sound units in words.

11. Get the student to use current spelling words in a critical manner (e.g., writing a letter to a friend, rock star, famous athlete, etc.) to enable their desire to improve.

12. Give spelling practice using an app or a hand-held educational device that gives the student instant feedback.

13. Minimize the emphasis on competition. Competitive learning activities may cause the student to hurry and misspell words.

14. Give personalized apps that will let the student practice their personal word list.

15. Consider using one of the tools from of spelling apps list.

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