How should spelling be taught?

From dyslexiahelp.umich.edu

Phonological awareness affects learning to spell

Given that many dyslexics have difficulty hearing the individual sounds in our language—a skill that underlies spelling—many dyslexics have difficulty learning to spell.

The English orthography is derived from many other languages: Greek, Latin, and French to name a few. As a result, many English sounds are spelled more than one way. This makes learning to spell in English more difficult than in other alphabetic orthographies where one sound is represented by only one letter.

Yet, English spelling is rule-governed. It is estimated by some that 90% of English spellings are predictable based on spelling rules and patterns. Yes, there are exceptions to those rules, but there are rules and patterns to teach spelling.

That said, teaching spelling can be challenging. It is helpful to become familiar with morphological structures, roots, affixes, prefixes, and suffixes.

Take a look at this Wikipedia page for a great look at the complex nature of English orthography.

he first step is an assessment of spelling to determine where the breakdown is — at the syllable level, the phonemic level, or the orthorgraphis level. After establishing baseline and goals, a good next step when teaching spelling rules and combinations is to heighten your client’s awareness of his or her spelling strengths and weaknesses. Explain that through teaching he or she will gain a better insight into spelling rules, combinations, and exceptions.

Spelling instruction follows a logical progression that starts with phonemic awareness. If the error analysis demonstrates intact phonological awareness skills, skip right to teaching letter and letter combinations that represent the sounds in our language. In the English language, 44 sounds (phonemes) are represented by 26 letters (graphemes) or letter combinations. It is important to teach your client that when we spell we manipulate the word (i.e. take it apart) into its individual sounds or morphological units and then encode or transform those sounds or units into the letter or letters representing each sound or unit. There is a lot to think about when teaching spelling: syllable structure, spelling rules, homophones, silent letters, suffixes and prefixes, to name a few.

The following is a list of guidelines for teaching spelling:

  • As with all therapy or teaching, sessions need to be structured, sequential, and have a logical progression from one target to the next. Lessons should be cumulative, ensuring that new information is introduced only when previously taught material has been fully absorbed.
  • In the first or early treatment sessions, make sure the client has a secure understanding of sound-symbol correspondence and letter name knowledge. You may need to begin with phonological awareness tasks – taking words apart at the syllable and sound level.
  • Dividing words into syllables can help students identify spelling patterns at the morphological level.
  • Limit the introduction of new information to reduce confusion.
  • An awareness of morphology should be incorporated into the teaching of spelling from the earliest stages.
  • Teaching should encompass the integration of
    • spoken and written language
    • word, sentence, and text-level learning
    • reading and writing skills.
  • Do not teach too many spelling patterns within a lesson. For example, you might decide to contrast –tion versus –sion in a lesson. This will require acute attention to the verbal production of “shun” (-tion) as in “production” versus “zhun” (-sion) as in “lesion.” And then, what do you do with “expansion” and “seizure?”

A bit about the exceptions to the rules—A person with dyslexia can be at a disadvantage, particularly when learning the exceptions, not only because of the phonological deficit that underlies the disability, but because of a lack of access to the printed word. One way we learn exceptions to spellings is by being exposed to these words when reading. Given that reading is difficult, the dyslexic will have less exposure to words through the printed form. And, they’ll have less exposure to sophisticated vocabulary.

Therefore, it behooves us to expose the dyslexic to as much sophisticated written text as possible. Text-to-speech programs are an excellent way for the dyslexic to follow along and have the text read out loud. When using books on tape, the individual should always read along with the text. This will give more exposure to spelling patterns, particularly important for learning those exceptions to the rule.

Additionally, seeing the word in print also helps one use Spellcheck. For some dyslexics with more severe spelling problems, the goal may be to become proficient enough that Spellcheck will pick up their errors. But, they still need to know which word from the choices is the one they want. Exposure to the word in print will facilitate this skill.

As noted above, we need to take a systematic approach to teaching spelling.

Although learning to spell (and teaching spelling) may be challenging, it helps to keep in mind that just as with any task (e.g., becoming a football player or learning an instrument), becoming proficient takes hard work and practice. With a systematic approach, the rules, patterns, and anomalies of English spelling can be learned. Success starts here!

Overcome Dyslexia with Modern Technology

By Melody Cleo

Dyslexia is a medical term that implies that the affected person is unable to read, spell, write or speak properly. It is a condition in which the normal day to day functioning ability of an individual is hampered due to dyslexic tendencies and is caused when the brain is impaired in a way that it is unable to transmit images into languages that are understandable. It is a common perception that dyslexia is similar to retardation of brain or low intelligence quotient, but researches over the years have shown that it is just caused by learning and reading disability and has little to do with individual intelligence.

Causes of Dyslexia:

There are three reasons that might cause Dyslexia in a person. Let us go through them one by one:

· It can be caused due to trauma that affects the brain and hampers the ability to read and learn.

· Dysfunction of the cerebral cortex on the brains’ left side may lead to dyslexia

· Dyslexia may also be a reason of hormonal development that crops up at the time of birth, but ceases with age. This particular type of dyslexia is more common among boys than in girls.

Dyslexia can be recognized among children at an early age. Their inability to learn, read, speak or write may not necessarily be a reason to worry, but it is always advisable to consult a doctor.

Overcoming Dyslexia with modern technology:

Gone are the days when dyslexic people were made to do sky contact and then undergo therapy. In the current scenario, modern technology has started playing a major role in treating dyslexia. With modern infrastructure, hi-fi technology and a need for newer and more efficient treatments, some of the technologies used are:

· Various audio devices are constantly used to let patients hear the content and then retain it. Tape recorders, mobile phones, camcorders and other such devices are being utilized to record voice and then are repeated so that dyslexic patients can retain them in their mind.

· Mind exercises, especially devised for dyslexic patients can be played on computers and laptops. This gives the opportunity to think and retain various thoughts. Various reading games can hone the reading skills as well.

· Electronic dictionaries that are voice enabled are extremely helpful since one can listen to end number of words, learn their pronunciation as well as meanings and learn their synonym and antonym words at the same time.

· Various spelling and grammar tools are out in the market that require an active internet connection and can easily correct any wrong grammar or spelling.

· There are many text to speech converting software programs available on the internet that can read texts of various formats n the computer and then change it to audio files. These programs are specifically made keeping the needs of dyslexic patients in mind and hence they have great sound quality.

These are just some of the modern technologies that have been put to use to pave a way for better treatment of Dyslexia. In the time to come, science is expecting even more development in the field of technology for the same purpose.

 

Melody Cleo is a passionate blogger from Manchester, UK. In is free time, she writes articles on various topics such as technology, gadgets, travel…Etc. As of now she is focusing on sky contact number, which provides information regarding broadband services, radio services and television services.

Connection Between Dyslexia and ADHD

By Tammy Mahan

Approximately 60 to 100 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD also have two or more other related conditions and one of the most notable conditions is dyslexia.

According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health,” dyslexia is a learning disability that can hinder a person’s ability to read, write, spell, and sometimes speak. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in children and persists throughout life. The severity of dyslexia can vary from mild to severe.”

Often time’s doctors miss the signs of dyslexia in children with ADHD because the signs and symptoms are similar in many aspects of both conditions.

Dyslexia is a condition in which the brain cannot translate images such as letters and numbers. The brain transposes the letters so a child with dyslexia may see the word winter as “inwter” this obviously causes problems with reading and comprehension.  The same thing is true for math, if a child is given the following math problem 345 + 821 they may see it as 435+ 128 and of course, their answer is going to be incorrect because the numbers they are adding together is not the correct set of numbers.

Some children have difficulty speaking because what they hear is not what is being said. Children learn to talk by hearing words and sentences and eventually they learn what the word means and repeat it. Such as young children who are just starting to learn to talk, if they hear “Mommy loves you” every night before bed and then they are given a hug or kiss they will eventually realize that “Mommy” is the person talking to them and putting them to bed so they will start to say part of the word such as “mama” and then “mommy.”

Children who have dyslexia often hear more of a mumbling instead of clear words. Therefore, it takes them longer to learn to talk and they usually will pronounce the words incorrectly such as “ommy” instead of “mommy.” Depending on the severity of the speech disability, they may need speech therapy to learn to talk.

So, what is the connection between dyslexia and ADHD? Scientists have done genetic testing on children with ADHD and found that dyslexia and ADHD share the same genetic background.  Both conditions also have been found to share some of the same chromosome differences making the two conditions more likely to accompany each other.  In other words if a child is diagnosed with either ADHD or dyslexia there is a very good chance the child has both conditions and should be tested for the condition that has not already been diagnosed.

While children who have ADHD without dyslexia still have learning disabilities, when you toss the dyslexia in to the mix, it makes the learning disabilities even more severe. Not only does the child have a learning disability but also they are faced with moderate to severe cases of loss of concentration and an inability to focus on anything for more than a few minutes and sometimes only seconds.

Children who fall into the ADHD/ dyslexia category cannot generally be taught by the traditional means used in the school systems. Luckily, there are special tools called motor sensory tools that are very beneficial in helping children with ADHD and dyslexia learn to read, write and do math problems.

 

Tammy Mahan has worked in the healthcare field for over 20 years. In her free time, she enjoys writing articles for Healthline.com.

I have looked for new research for the connection between Dyslexia and ADHD and was unable to find any new explanations to the statistics.