Teach Me How to Spell

It is easier to teach ordinary children how to spell than to teach dyslexic children. To teach these special children you must have a lot of patience and compassion. If such a child comes to you and tells you “Teach me how to spell”, do not shrug away from the responsibility.

You should never get impatient with these children. You must keep in mind that they will not be able to learn to spell without your help. So if such a child says “Teach Me to Spell” you must remember that he/she needs special care.

If a dyslexic child comes to you as a student be patient and think “had I been in such a position how I would like my teacher to Teach Me how to Spell?” The moment you realize this it will be much easier to understand them.

• Firstly – you should analyze their present status. You should never expect them to be as adept at spelling as the other children. The dyslexic children are unable to recognize the patterns in spelling. So even though they may be in the third or fourth grade they may have capacity to spell in level with kindergarten children. So your first task would be to determine exactly what level they are capable of coping with rather than what level they should be in. And accordingly you should set up the lessons. However these children are most often very bright and so you should keep it in mind to provide them materials that would stimulate their urge to learn.

• Secondly – if you see that your child or student is not making progress in the particular lesson, then do not push him/her for it. You should take care not to confuse or frustrate the child. When they are not able to learn a particular lesson, if you keep pestering him/her then you will achieve nothing but get the child frustrated. This frustration would then lead to anxiety and stress and will make it completely impossible for them to learn anything. For it may also happen that the child is not at fault at all but rather it is your teaching methods that are wrong. But if you keep pestering then the child may refuse to learn spellings at all.

• Thirdly – you must keep it in mind that every technique of learning does not work with every child. So you have to find out the natural style of learning of the child and their personalities and then plan the lessons accordingly. If you are able to do this then you will find that your child learns much faster with less stress.

• Fourthly – make sure they have a craving to learn. All kids like to have a lot of fun. So it would be a very good idea to make the lessons more fun by involving games and computer softwares. The basic goal is to turn something that is very difficult and extremely stressful for these children into something that is full of fun so as to help them learn better and faster.

• Lastly – try to relate the words to one another in an understandable way like a story so that it is easier to learn. You can also group the words of the lesson in accordance with the prefixes and suffixes. In this way it would be easier for them to remember them better.

Linda Walker is the author of this article on Teaching Spelling. Find more information about Teaching Spelling here.