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Spelling education has changed dramatically over the last hundred years. There was a time when spelling was taught before reading. Modern research is now beginning to prove that this method of improving spelling is actually incredibly effective.

Joshi et al (2008) point out that phonics knowledge is the basis for reading, writing, and spelling. Unfortunately, phonics is frequently a subject that teachers skip unless a student is having real difficulty with language arts.

Fortunately, you can give your child an early head start by teaching phonics at home. Phonics is simply the relationship between letters and sounds. By knowing how each letter is pronounced, you can sound out a word.

Different combinations of letters make different sounds. As your child learns the common combinations of sounds, he or she will develop reading skills as well as build spelling skills.

You can begin with simple words like cat and dog and run. For the word cat, you can focus on words that end in -at, and words that begin with ca-. You and your child can look for words that have an a in the middle that makes the same sound.

As your child begins to recognize the pattern you are focusing on, they can try to read and pronounce unfamiliar words that follow that same pattern. Your child will also learn to guess the spellings of words they have heard.

Try to do every consonant/vowel combination you can, then move on to single-syllable words with consonant clusters, like “that” and “stand.” Try to relate each lesson to any previously learned word patterns.

After your child has learned single syllable words, Powell and Aram (2008) recommend teaching prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Prefixes come at the beginning of the word, suffixes come at the end.

You and your beginning speller can look up the origin and history of each word part. Make a list of words that use this part and then figure out how it is used in each of them.

An example is the prefix an-, which comes before vowels and the letter h in words that come from Greek. An- makes a word mean not, without, or lacking. Antidote, anarchy, and anion all make use of this prefix.

This type of study of words and their meaning and pronunciation is extremely effective for teaching spelling to both beginners and more advanced students.

REFERENCES

Joshi, R M, Treiman, R, Carreker, S, Moats, L C 2008, 'The Real Magic of Spelling,' American Educator, Winter 2008-2009, p 9.

Powell, DA, Aram, R, 2008, Spelling in Parts: A Strategy for Spelling and Decoding Polysyllabic Words, The Reading Teacher, vol 61(7), pp 567–570.