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Many children struggle with spelling in school. Girls generally find spelling easier than boys, but the majority of children have trouble with spelling. Unfortunately, most schools teach spelling in a one-size-fits-all manner, rather than addressing the individual needs of each child (Warda (2005)).

A few children may learn the weekly spelling words by heart just by completing weekly spelling homework like alphabetizing the words or using them in a sentence. Most children won't remember the correct spelling of those words a month later.

Because schools often lack the time and resources to teach spelling at an individual level, it is important for parents to know how to help children struggling with spelling.

Parents who wish to help their child improve in any area of school will need to identify their child's learning style. Rose (1987) says some children are visual learners and learn best by watching and seeing things.

Some children are auditory learners and need to hear things out loud. Some children, especially the active ones, are kinesthetic learners and need to do an activity to learn.

Parents who know how their child best absorbs information will be well-equipped to help them with spelling.

The child that learns through visual input can practice color-coding their words with markers. They can find the root of the word and write it in one color, and then write the rest of the word in a different color. This child can group his or her words according to similarities they see, and then write the similar parts of each word in the same color.

This helps the visual child recognize common patterns in many different words. The visual child may also enjoy hunting for words with similar chunks or vowel groups in a newspaper and magazine, and highlighting their finds in different colors. Stamping words out with ink and letter stamps, and proofreading their own writing are also good activities for children who learn well by seeing things.

The auditory child will want to hear the words spelled out loud. This child may enjoy making up songs or rhymes or memory tricks using his or her spelling words. In order to proofread their own writing, auditory children may need to read the work out loud while they look for spelling errors. Spelling out words with letter magnets and putting together two parts of a word written on different index cards can help an auditory child commit spelling words to memory.

The kinesthetic child needs activities to help him or her learn the spelling words by heart. This child can write the words out with fingerpaint, or trace them onto a countertop smeared with shaving cream or a steamed mirror in the bathroom. Rolling clay into snakes and then twisting them into letters is another excellent activity for the active child.

The kinesthetic child will likely enjoy making up stories or comics using his or her spelling words. Kinesthetic learners tend to rush about, so these children may need to proofread their writing by reading the words backwards from the end to the beginning. This causes the child to actually slow down and consider each word individually instead of skimming.

REFERENCES

Rose, C 1987, 'Learning Styles,' Accelerated Learning.

Warda, R 2005, 'Research Based tutoring of English Spelling,' eSpindle Learning Inc.