How Can You Train Children With Learning Disabilities To Spell Well?

Any parent will tell you that nearly all children with learning disabilities have problems spelling. They may have difficulties with the sounds and phonics, they most often have trouble with the visualization recall of spelling words, and this can impact their learning ability on nearly every level!

Have you ever sat reading with your child and discovered a word they did not know? Most often we pause and show them the word, possibly even educate them the spelling of the word, and thus we move on to the following page. How frustrating is it to encounter the same word on the next page, only to find that they cannot remember the very word you showed them only minutes before? Then when the same word appears two pages later, they cannot consider the word once again. Consider me, if this frustrates you as a parent, how much more maddening must this be for your child with their learning disabilities!

As a Behavioral Optometrist who has worked in the field of children and learning disabilities for over 20 years, I recognize that there are loads of factors at work in the above mentioned situation. In an attempt to make simpler things for myself and my patients, I loosely group spelling disabilities into two camps, phonics and visual memory.

Phonics

Phonics needs the using of sound to articulate the word, and it is especially useful when we stumble upon a word we do not recognize. So, even as an adult, if you are reading and come across a word you are unfamiliar with, you use phonics to make an attempt at figuring the word out by sounding it. On the other hand, if you try to read using simply phonics, it is slow, backbreaking and a entire disaster!

Visualization

To read well you have to use sight words, not phonics. It is that simple! In order for children to read, they have to have a sufficient collection of sight words that they can effortlessly recognize. However, lots of children with learning disabilities are very poor at spelling and consequently have an particularly small number of sight words to call upon as they endeavor to read.

For that reason any support we can offer that can enlarge the number of sight words for children with learning disabilities will assist in their quest to read smoothly. However, simply going over and over the same words trying to pound the words into their head just does not work!

Why does repetition of spelling words work unsuccessfully when it comes to increasing a child's sight words? The reason is that the most essential skill in memory, visualization, is not being improved. Mindless repetition usually does not break through when it comes to spelling, and all it does is make parents and children angry and frustrated.

The most important part of visual memory is visualization, and if you can manage to get a children with learning disabilities to visualize (and it is not always that easy!) then you will be able to help them learn hundreds of sight words.

Have you ever asked yourself why loads of children and adolescents these days spell badly? Possibly it is the teaching techniques, perhaps green house gas, possibly fluoride in the water? No, I don't believe so! I think that it is locked in with the advent of TV, DVDs and the internet. Formerly kids listened to radio plays or had books read to them, where they had to imagine the scene in their heads. Now they observe DVDs or a website, where all the visualizing is done for them and they simply take it in.

Consequently we have given rise to generations of children with learning disabilities who cannot visualize and hence cannot spell! Please appreciate, I love TV, it 's awesome, but it does not encourage me to visualize!

I love working with kids with learning disabilities, and I love working with visualization. It's fun, the children fancy it and it constantly achieves results. So, the is this:

1. We want to get children visualizing
2. We require to apply this new found skill to sight word lists

I have spent years developing special therapies and tips specifically to enhance visualization and word recall. using these technique over a 4-5 month period, I recent had one little girl who had merely managed to learn one word a month (in Grade 3), suddenly learn 155 words in 4 weeks. Another boy learned 78 words, another 156, and one girl, not to be outdone by the boys, managed 186 words in one month.

These ideas do work if you offer them a go, thus if you require to learn more about my special therapy program "Learning @ Lightspeed" examination out our website.

As a Behavioral Optometrist who has practiced in the discipline of children and learning disabilities for over 20 years, I distinguish that there are a lot of factors at work in the above mentioned situation. In an attempt to simplify things for myself and my patients, I loosely categorize spelling disabilities into two camps, phonics and visual memory. Information about the Author: To discover positive, holistic and effective solutions for learning disabilities you can start using right now, visit Children Learning Disabilities. Distance Learning Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

Print This Article Add To Favorites Email to Friends Get Re-print Code

Click the XML Icon for 'Distance Learning' Articles RSS feed