ADD and Spelling problems

My older son (add/inattentive) has a terrible time with spelling, he has had weaknesses in reading and math too though. I believe he thinks punctuation is optional. Thankfully since middle school, he hasn’t had spelling tests.

In elementary school, we had his lists cut down by half, then he studied his words on index cards. We also got his list on Friday for the next week.
If he had 10 words, we had him study 2 words a night and added on each day. That way he wasn’t overloaded. Also, writing them 3 times a piece is not useful and a work in frustration. I made him do this at first, then asked my husband what worked for him in school, he had similar problems as a kid. The cards were his suggestion. Actually he will still call me from work sometimes to ask how to spell something.

I am not knowledgeable enough to address the writing problem. Is she taking too much time trying to remember how to spell the word and forgetting what she wanted to write? Or is she having trouble with actual handwriting? I understand some kids have trouble getting their thoughts down on paper, perhaps using the computer would help? That way she could just write what she is thinking and then go back to correct.

Hope this helps some, I am sure other folks with more expertise will chime in.
Amy

Is there another ADD board on the net that is more active? Thanks for your help.

There is one called Added Support on msn that I also go to. It is more casual I think than on here but a big lack of expertise as far as working with schools and knowledge of alternative therapies available. I often try to get folks there with major school problems to come here and seek help. I don’t see them here very often, only once actually. I don’t see teachers on the Added Support board, it is mostly parents of kids with adhd or adults with adhd.

My son has spelling problems as well although he is getting better.
Most of the research supports the idea that reading is mostly an auditory activity; one must understand the code and be able to sound out. My son has a visual processing and visual motor problem. He learned to read with the help of the book reading reflex. (Many parents here have used it with very good success.) He actually made it to grade level even with his visual problems.

Spelling has more of a visual component. My son can spell words phoneticly for instance he will write laff for laugh. He even does well on spelling tests because we map out the sounds in the words and he can remember them for the test. His spelling falls apart when he writes. I believe the reason for this is that he is not able to inprint a visual picture of the letters or sound pictures on his brain for retrieval later. Think about the act of spelling when you are unsure how to spell a word you will often sound it out to get the letters down but then you will look at it to decide if it “looks right.”

In the book reading reflex they discuss scratch sheet spelling. This helps some but doesn’t help my son because the process requires that you have some pictures of words that you can retrieve from you memory. He doesn’t take the pictures to begin with so there is nothing to retrieve.

I have been doing a few things that help him to visualize. I ask him to look at the word and make a picture of it in his mind. Then I will ask him what the 3 sound picture is that he sees.
I also do an exercise that involves putting 4 colored circles on a white board; red, green, orange, yellow. I ask him to look at them for about 5 seconds. Then I ask him to tell me the circles in order but leave out the orange one. If you try to do this yourself you can see that it is hard to do unless you make a mental picture.

This may not be your child’s problem at all but I just thought I would share what seems to be working.

My son is ADHD and in the 4th grade. We are also in the middle of testing and also having alot of problems with spelling. He seems do do alright on the spelling test that we study intensively for 4 nights but when he writes a story no one can read it not even my son! For spelling test we found that writing the words in handwriting and not printing them helped alot and studing them in the am as well as the pm helped. Thanks

My son is ADHD also and he has severe difficulty in spelling. He is on imipramine (doesn’t help with ADHD very much). We have tried visualization techniques and it has helped. We write the words in bright colors on index cards. He is to hold the card about 12 in. away and look at it till he can see it in his mind ,then he closes his eyes and sees if he can visualize it. If he can then he spells it backwards and then forwards. It takes a lot of time but after 2 yrs of doing this he has brought up his SAT scores from 2nd grade to 7th grade. It still doesn’t help a whole lot in his writing so I let him use the computer for written assignments(we homeschool). I don’t know if this is best for him but I couldn’t see holding him back just because he can’t spell well.He is in 5th grade and is very bright so why hold him back just for this? Hope this is of some use. Jan

Know of one case of ADHD (attention deficit) where the poor spelling was directly related to the short attention span, that is, the attention span was so short that only parts of words vs the whole word was easily processed. Once the person found the right ADHD medicine (a stimulant/alerting agent), the spelling visibly improved due to a temporarily longer and more predictable attention span.

The three symptoms most often linked to ADHD are: inattention (short attention span), hyperactivity (hyperkinesis), and impulsivity.