What skills does your child need to be a good speller?

Firstly they must process the sounds within the word and then sequence those sounds and finally remember them.

There are 46 sounds in the English Language, 26 represented in the alphabet plus 20 others including blended sounds like /sh/ and /ch/ which, by the way, sound very alike.

There are 5 vowels and 21 consonants in the alphabet.

The vowels are /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u//
But some of these have more than one sound e.g. /o/
 
Here are three examples of different /o/ sounds...
Rope
Mop
Some which sounds like /u/ as in Sum.

To process any sound accurately we must have good processing skills so we can tell the difference between sounds.  If you suspect your child has dyslexia they may not be able to differentiate between /sh/ and /ch/  or /b/ and /d/ and may mix them up at times.

English is not a phonetic language nor is it a transparent one.

Way and Weigh sound the same as each other but they are spelled differently.

When you sound out /w/ /e/ /i/ /g/ /h/ it will never sound like Weigh.

The good news is that you can work on improving your child's spelling by building the cognitive skills of processing, sequencing and memory leading to better phonemic awareness and language awareness.

Learning to spell is one outcome of our course, reading, language and thinking skills also improve. Here is a parent wrote to us last week

"I am truly grateful for your unwavering support and assistance. I cannot emphasize enough how instrumental your help has been in securing a quality education for him and allowing him to participate in such (school) events." Mona Rashed

If you would like to know how you can improve your child's spelling by enrolling your child on our Summer Learning Course please drop me a line or phone me:

joyce@neuronlearning.com

Tel UK 0208 12345 58

Tel Ire 021 234 0203

Tel Int;l + 353 21 234 0203

Kind regards
Joyce