Neat results using Nancy's spelling ideas (plus my own!)

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

A few days ago Nancy recommended reverse spelling to me….the parent (or tutor) spells the word and the kid tells you what it is. I have been trying to get my son to visualize letters using some of Seeing Stars but he has thought it was quite stupid. Probably because he couldn’t do it easily.

Anyway, I tried this and I was surprised he could do it at all. We then continued with my usual approach which was to write the word on a white board and then have him write and say it and then underline which letters stand for one sound (PG style). We did this for three days.

Then today I spelled a word and had him tell me what it is. He got all of them (his 7 year old brother got knight before him and after that he paid attention!!). I then asked him to write the word I had just spelled on the white board. He got them all right, which is quite amazing for him. And some of the words were quite hard—wrestle, although, sought.

I think this worked because I sneaked it in. He was very adverse to my attempts to get him to reverse spell ect. words to me. I think it was just too hard for him but he could do this. I also think he isn’t good enough at visualizing that I could have easily asked him a la SS questions like what is the second letter ect. But following up with word analysis PG style where he could see and say the words seemed to work.

Beth

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/01/2004 - 3:56 AM

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Wow! That is so great to hear! I especially like the way you modified it to suit your child.

Reverse spelling is such a great technique, I wish it were used more. I suspect adults think it is too easy, but the child still has to visualize the word in order to figure out what it is, so I think it really works on visualization and auditory memory skills.

Thanks for posting. You made my day!

Nancy

Submitted by victoria on Thu, 04/01/2004 - 6:37 AM

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Actually, for most of the kids I work with, it would be much too difficult. If I tried reverse spelling, it would confuse those who still have a somewhat tenuous grasp on left-to-right scanning. These presently run from a seven-year-old in Grade 2 up to an eighteen-year-old adult ed failure who still reverse a bit too often. Not that it’s a bad technique in certain cases, but to be used once you are quite sure your student tracks properly and very consistently.

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