Download Our advice leaflet on spelling

10 ways of helping SpLD
pupils with their spelling
1 Develop their phonics as far as possible.
A reasonable proficiency with phonics reduces
the number of words they have to learn by
heart and will often make inaccurate spelling
attempts readable. If they seriously struggle
with phoneme by phoneme phonics, consider
splitting words into onset and rime: this makes
it easier to hear the vowel phoneme (because
it’s at the start of the rime), and helps prevent
some transpositions (e.g. spelling black as
balck).
2 Help pupils to choose which approach to
learning spellings by heart they find most
helpful.
Research shows, where pupils identify which
way of learning works best for them, their
spelling improves more quickly. There are a
number of approaches they can try:
 ‘Look, cover, write, check’ – familiar to
most pupils and teachers, but has been
said to be unhelpful for pupils with SpLD.
 ‘Simultaneous Oral Spelling’ – pupil says
word, says letters in word while writing
them in cursive script, then says word
again.
 Visualisation / ‘Neuro-Lingusitic
Programming’ – word is written in large
letters, is held so that pupils see it out of
top left hand corner of their eyes, and is
discussed. Pupils then close eyes and try
to visualise it.
 Visual patterns – look for patterns in
words: divide d ivi de; receive r ece ive;
and words in words: father fat her; what w
hat. Use highlighters.
 Mnemonics – ‘O U Lucky Duck’ for
spelling could; necessary has ‘one collar
and two sleeves’, etc. Valuable for small
number of difficult words, but difficult to
commit a large number of mnemonics to
memory.
 Spelling pronunciation – pronouncing
Wednesday as ‘wed – nes – day’. Most helpful
for pupils whose phonics is good, but whose
sight memory is weak.
 Own voice – pupils tape themselves reading
word aloud, saying letters, saying word again.
They then play the tape back to themselves
and write while listening.
 Mike’s patent spelling boxes! Combines
some of above. Phone SpLD team for details
and copies.
3 Agree a marking policy for written work with the
pupil.
Marking every word that is spelled wrong in piece
of writing can distract you and the pupil from the
content of the writing, and be very discouraging.
However, some pupils will assume that unmarked
words are spelled correctly. So it is worth
discussing with them in advance what you are
doing. It is usually enough to mark one or two very
common words and one or two words that are
central to a subject. They will also need to know
when you cannot interpret a word they are trying to
spell, but don’t put them off attempting new,
interesting and difficult words.
4 Help them to develop a private dictionary /
spelling book.
This can have a number of uses: pupils can add
words they have learnt (as a mark of achievement
and for later reinforcement), words they find
especially hard, or words they want to learn. The
book needs to be small and arranged in
alphabetical order.
5 Encourage joined handwriting.
This can help them remember spellings
‘kinaesthetically’ (through the movements of the
their hands). It can also reduce letter reversals.
Nevertheless, remember that joining your writing
can be difficult when you are having to think about
which letter comes next.
6 Adapt class spelling tests to make them
appropriate for pupils with SpLD.
If a pupil is trying to learn words, but is still
only getting 2 out of 10 right, give them fewer
words to learn so that they can focus on those
and experience some success. Select some
words that have something in common (a
rime, or a suffix), so that pupils can make
generalisations. Select mostly words that they
will be using in their writing. Revisit words
learnt earlier in the year, otherwise they will be
forgotten. Make sure that pupils can read and
understand the words they are learning to
spell or that there is someone at home that
can help them – otherwise they won’t know
what word they are learning. Help pupils
develop a strategy for learning the words (see
2 above). Encourage them to check they
remember the spellings on another day from
the day they learnt them.
7 Consider peer support, especially if support
is unavailable at home.
Peers can make sure words are identified
correctly, can help with selecting strategies for
learning, and then with practising the words.
They can also share any rewards for success.
There is structured system for doing this
called ‘Cued Spelling’.
8 Make full use of ICT resources.
Speaking spellcheckers (both on a
computer and hand-held), can be helpful,
although non-speaking ones make it
difficult to select the right word. Speechrecognition programs, especially for older
children, have huge potential, but don’t
work well for everyone and need quite a
lot of organisation. Also the pupil needs to
be able to read reasonably well to train the
program. Some programmes make
learning spellings more fun, such as
Speaking Starspell and Wordshark.
9 Remember that using a dictionary can be
difficult if you can’t spell, but consider using
the ACE dictionary.
If you don’t know how to spell a word, it can
be difficult to find it in the dictionary to check
its spelling, but it is worth developing
dictionary skills all the same. If a pupil can
segment the first few phonemes in spoken
words, can hear the vowel sounds OK (but
not necessarily spell them), and can read
reasonably well, they should be able to make
use of the ACE Spelling Dictionary, which
was developed with SpLD pupils in mind.
10 If a pupil is well motivated to learn words
that seem too long, encourage it, but show
strategies to help.
Length of words can be a self-esteem issue,
so don’t deny pupils who are struggling with
simple words the chance to learn some
longer ones. To make this manageable,
show them how to split spoken words into
syllables, and draw their attention to
common prefixes and suffixes. If possible,
give them words that share a root, or a prefix
or suffix.