How can an outstanding reader/writer be such an atrocious speller? And how to help?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Dyslexia: which is about manipulating phonemes and not seeing things wrong. 1 in 5 people have it. See this:
http://eida.org/spelling/


Yes that is why I am moving ahead with the Orton Gillingham based instruction .
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's difficult to pinpoint the source of your child's spelling challenges without seeing work samples, but this much is clear: if reading is advanced, then the child knows the phonemic sounds.

The question is, when encoding (spelling), why does she consistently choose the wrong representation of the sound? Logic dictates that a strong reader is familiar with words and their appropriate spelling (including homophones) because the reader is able to consistently connect context with visual cues to correctly decode (read) and comprehend the word(s) in question. So...why does your child fail to consistently apply contextual and visual cues when attempting to write the same words she reads?

Again, this is an educated guess (not having observed writing behaviors and work samples), but I would suggest the following:
--There are 44 phonemes in the english language. Google it, and make sure your child knows ALL of them.
--Each developing speller needs a strategy to use when she comes across a word she does not know how to spell. Teach the 6 syllable types (open, closed, r-controlled, vowel team, consonant-'le', silent 'e') and stress syllibication (an extension of "chunking").
--Stress accountability. At a certain point, it is no longer acceptable to guess. The child must recall all that she has learned and all she knows from visually recognizing words (i.e. reading) in order to take their best shot at the correct spelling.

it is not the case necessarily that a good reader has good phonemic awareness. I know this because the speech language eval showed otherwise for my son.


The PP said that advanced reading means the child knows her "phonemic sounds." That's only one piece of phonemic awareness (which includes the ability to successfully manipulate phonemes in order to encode, or spell). A child can know their phonemes but have less developed phonemic awareness. Not trying to negate what you are saying, only trying to provide some clarification. I see all types of "poor spellers" because they simply aren't adept at "generalizing" and manipulating phonemic components.
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