L
earning to read and spell is
a complicated task which
requires mastery of lots of
different skills. These skills are:
•
Being able to process the sounds
in words; either breaking the word
down into its individual sounds to
spell or blending individual sounds
together to read words. For example,
to write the word ‘cat’ a child needs
to be able to sound out ‘c-a-t’. To
read the word ‘cat’ a child needs to
be able to blend the sounds ‘c-a-t’
together.
•
Knowing letter-sound
correspondences for reading
and writing. Letter-sound
correspondences refer to the link
between what is heard and what
is written (the letter/letters that
represent a sound) as well as what
is seen (read) and what is spoken,
i.e. ‘d’ (as in dog) is written with
a letter ‘d’ and ‘ch’ (as in chair) is
written with the letters ‘c’ and ‘h’.
In English this is especially difficult
as often sounds can be represented
in a multitude of ways, particularly
vowel sounds. For example, the
sound ‘or’ can be written as ‘or’ in
for, ‘our’ in four, ‘al’ in talk, ‘ough’
in bought, ‘augh’ in caught, ‘ore’ in
before, ‘oor’ in door, ‘ar’ in warm,
‘
oar’ in oar, ‘aw’ in paw and ‘au’
in cause. Furthermore, the rules
defining which form should be
used are often inconsistent or non-
existent. You simply have to know
which one is correct.
•
Holding onto the sounds being read
or the word being sounded out in
your working memory as you decode
new/unfamiliar words.
•
Having strong fine motor skills
which allow you to control the
pencil when writing.
•
Having good vision skills in order to
see the letters on the page with ease.
A breakdown in one or more
of these areas can lead to difficulty
learning to read and spell. Difficulties
can present in many ways, some of
which are more obvious than others.
For example:
•
A child might present with obvious
reading and spelling difficulties,
such as not being able to read or
write anything after many hours of
instruction.
•
A child might have difficulty
remembering spelling words from
one week to the next but does well in
their weekly spelling tests.
•
They might reverse their letters
when writing; a common error
is b/d confusion, which is an
appropriate error when a child is in
Primary 1, but not in Primary 3.
•
They might retrieve the wrong
sound when reading; again this
happens frequently with b/d in the
early years of reading.
•
A child may struggle to sound
out words accurately, frequently
omitting letters, putting additional
letters in or mixing up the order of
letters in a word.
•
They may do well in early years
reading and spelling, and appear
to suddenly develop reading and
spelling difficulties in later years
as the skills required become more
complex.
•
There may be a big difference
between a child’s reading and
spelling skills. Reading and spelling
skills are stored in different systems
so develop separately. Therefore,
one area can be strong whilst the
other is weak.
•
There may be a big difference
between a child’s cognitive skills and
reading/spelling skills.
•
Poor performance in writing
tasks can also be an indicator of
underlying reading and spelling
difficulties, although this can also be
an indicator of underlying language
difficulties.
Children with a family history
of difficulty in learning to read and
spell, as well as those children who
have a history of language and/or
articulation difficulties, are at risk
of developing reading and spelling
difficulties. Therefore, it’s important
to monitor their reading and spelling
development closely. Reading and
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