Good reader, poor speller?

[Anonymous]

My 2nd grader final hit her stride with reading last year. She now is a voracious reader. She reads, reads, reads, reads, and reads. She loves reading!

But her spelling is abominable! I just don't understand how one could be a good reader, but a poor speller? She still leans on sounding words out, but doesn't supplement that from words in her memory bank that she should know by now. For example, just yesterday, she tried to spell "bubbles" as "bubls." WHAT? What is going on here?

Has this happened to anyone else's kids? Is this a learning difference? A developmental stage? A bigger problem? A sign of dyslexia? Other?

Help!

[Anonymous]

My husband is a college educated engineer and can't spell well at all. My son, a five year college student writes like a third grader.

Both read, both speak well. I cannot figure it out.

[Anonymous]

He's probabky a speed reader. Once you can read fast, you are not truly looking at every word. Reading, spelling and writing are three different skills.

[Anonymous]

My DH is a highly successful lawyer. He's a beautiful writer and his mother says he's always had great reading comprehension and argument skills. The man cannot entire out a grocery list without misspelling something! He cannot spell. He tries, but spell check was invented for people like him. Some people just never get it, but they can be very successful anyway!

[Anonymous]

Entire=write. Darn autocorrect.

[Anonymous]

My son (4th grade) is the same way. I appreciate that he has the potential to be great at whatever he chooses to do, but it isn't helping his weekly spelling tests!!

[Anonymous]

You've got to read this. One of my favorite ever Post magazine stories. This guy is a great writer, terrible speller. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27074-2005Feb15.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You've got to read this. One of my favorite ever Post magazine stories. This guy is a great writer, terrible speller. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27074-2005Feb15.html

OP here. Thanks! I had just googled "bad spelling" and raced through that entire article! It is what made me worry about her having dyslexia! LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son (4th grade) is the same way. I appreciate that he has the potential to be great at whatever he chooses to do, but it isn't helping his weekly spelling tests!!

OP here. Yes, weekly spelling tests are, um, tough on both of us!

[Anonymous]

OP here. Ok, I am thankful that poor spellers can grow up and be successful contributing members in society, but I do still want to know if there's something I should be looking into now, when she is 7, for early intervention? (?)

[Anonymous]

My son is a 4th grader, a good reader but can't spell well at all. He has improved some over the years through extra help at school, but he's never going to be a good speller. He seems to have problems with hearing letter sounds, especially long vowel sounds and remembering the rules for spelling them. He will often spell the same word three different ways in one paragraph, i.e. pitchur, picher, pitcher (meaning to spell "picture"). I just thank god for spell check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Ok, I am thankful that poor spellers can grow up and be successful contributing members in society, but I do still want to know if there's something I should be looking into now, when she is 7, for early intervention? (?)

This is the PP. My son receives pull-out assistance at school to work on spelling rules, vowel sounds, and writing fluency. School just started, so I'm not sure what he will get this year, but he got that daily in 2nd and 3rd. His 2nd grade teacher approached us with the concern and was great about getting the tutoring started. He has not had any testing, and we don't really think it is necessary at this point. His first grade teacher noticed the problem, but she sucked so we were never told. It still makes me mad that he could have had intervention a whole year earlier if she had bothered to mention it to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Ok, I am thankful that poor spellers can grow up and be successful contributing members in society, but I do still want to know if there's something I should be looking into now, when she is 7, for early intervention? (?)

This is the PP. My son receives pull-out assistance at school to work on spelling rules, vowel sounds, and writing fluency. School just started, so I'm not sure what he will get this year, but he got that daily in 2nd and 3rd. His 2nd grade teacher approached us with the concern and was great about getting the tutoring started. He has not had any testing, and we don't really think it is necessary at this point. His first grade teacher noticed the problem, but she sucked so we were never told. It still makes me mad that he could have had intervention a whole year earlier if she had bothered to mention it to us.

Thank you so much, PP. Yeah, none of my DD's teachers have mentioned anything up to this point, either, but she just started 2nd and I've begun to think maybe I should bring it up and be proactive about this and see if I can get her some help along these lines too. Thank you so much for commenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Is this a learning difference? A developmental stage? A bigger problem? A sign of dyslexia? Other?

Dysgraphia?

Is your child in MCPS - if so, it could be simply the result of their intuitive spelling (I don't know if that's the right term) program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Ok, I am thankful that poor spellers can grow up and be successful contributing members in society, but I do still want to know if there's something I should be looking into now, when she is 7, for early intervention? (?)

This is the PP. My son receives pull-out assistance at school to work on spelling rules, vowel sounds, and writing fluency. School just started, so I'm not sure what he will get this year, but he got that daily in 2nd and 3rd. His 2nd grade teacher approached us with the concern and was great about getting the tutoring started. He has not had any testing, and we don't really think it is necessary at this point. His first grade teacher noticed the problem, but she sucked so we were never told. It still makes me mad that he could have had intervention a whole year earlier if she had bothered to mention it to us.

Thank you so much, PP. Yeah, none of my DD's teachers have mentioned anything up to this point, either, but she just started 2nd and I've begun to think maybe I should bring it up and be proactive about this and see if I can get her some help along these lines too. Thank you so much for commenting.

You're welcome! Good luck!