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Solving Spelling Problems with Digital Assistants and Voice Search Technology

Challenges with spelling disrupt the flow of thoughts, distract the writer and often result in poor word choice. Even though the author may have an excellent speaking vocabulary, their writing may suffer due to avoidance of words that are difficult to spell. What's more, many poor spellers skirt writing altogether because navigating spelling potholes can be time-consuming, and they fear that others will question their intellect. What Can Be Done to Help Poor Spellers? The technology age offers a number excellent tools for struggling spellers. Speech-to-Text Software: Speech-to-text is a type of software that transcribes the spoken word into typed words on a computer or handheld device. Writers no longer have to be distracted by spelling. As long as they enunciate their words clearly, all spelling will be accommodated via voice commands. Macs come with this option for free. To learn more CLICK HERE . In addition, there are many other speech-to-text options like Speec...

How to Teach Spelling: A Focused Remedial Approach

The brain is an extremely complex infrastructure of neural highways and byways, and each student has their own unique pattern of established pathways as well as cognitive based strengths and weaknesses. As a result, defining the best remedial techniques for spelling requires a mindful approach that evaluates the cognitive based causes of the spelling difficulty and then tailors a specific remedial approach. So How Can I Meet the Individual Needs of Each Student for Optimal Learning? There is a four step process to meeting the needs of your struggling spellers. 1) Rule out any vision or hearing problems by asking the family to pursue the needed testing. This is something that the child’s pediatrician can do. 2) Understand the core cognitive based weaknesses or difficulties that can cause spelling struggles. These include: Auditory processing Visual processing Memory Optilexia Sequential processing Passive learning Inattentive learning Stress 3) Know how to use...

How to Homeschool Dyslexic Kids - Fun Strategies for Success

Finding excellent educational materials when you are homeschooling your children can be a challenge, but when you have a child with a learning disability, such as dyslexia, it is extremely important to utilize fun and engaging multisensory materials as well as cognitive remedial tools that make the learning process both enjoyable and memorable. What is Dyslexia? Dyslexia, a common condition that effects 5 to 10 percent of all people, is a learning disability that impacts decoding and comprehension of text as well as spelling and written language. Common causes of these difficulties are visual and/or auditory processing weaknesses that make it difficult to encode new, language-based information. Many also have a hard time accessing learned information, and they can experience word finding difficulties. How Can a Student with Dyslexia Learn the Needed Skills in a Homeschooling Environment? Although dyslexia is called a learning disability, it does not mean that these stud...

Accommodating Students with Dyslexia - 12 Strategies for Success

Students with dyslexia or symptoms of dyslexia often struggle in school. It is not that they have limited abilities. On the contrary, many have IQs in the above average or genius range. As a result, instead of a dumbed down curriculum, these students need to be challenged and they need to receive accommodations, modifications and multisensory teaching techniques to unleash their learning potential. What makes it difficult to accommodate students with dyslexia is that each student has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Yes, two students with dyslexia don’t have the same pattern of cognitive processing deficits. In fact, there are a number of profiles that can lead to this diagnosis . In addition, there are a number of specific cognitive skills that can cause symptoms of dyslexia . Consequently, a successful remediation often requires a tailored, individualized approach. To tap into the quickest results, I have learned that one has to look at the specific cognitive difficul...

How to Address Spelling Needs and Nurture Student Success

This week I am thrilled to share a case study of a fabulous teacher named Kim, from Cape Town in South Africa. Kim teaches a 3rd-grade class at a special needs school. The children range from 10-12 years old and most are bussed in daily from very disadvantaged areas all over the peninsula. Kim reported, "I was so thrilled to have stumbled across your website when I was drowning in a sea of unrecognizable words and paragraphs which were proudly presented to me by 8 out of my16 pupils." Kim knew they were capable, "as most of them could do math with the greatest of ease. So what was this?" How Could Kim Meet the Diverse Needs of Her Students? Kim signed up for my course: Spelling Instruction: Assessment and Focused Remedial Approach . She shared, "After studying your course, I realized that my student's brains were wired differently as far as language processing." Kim learned that her struggling students had different cognitive based weakness...

Free Reading and Spelling Game for the TCH or CH, DGE or GE, CK or K Rules

The English language is packed with confusing rules that can make decoding and reading difficult tasks to master. What's more, many of the workbooks and activities are boring, and even if students complete the lesson, it doesn't mean that they can apply the content in a different learning situation. However, presenting the same content in a game-like format can make a lesson memorable and engaging even for struggling learners. Here is a fun game that my students love to play. It's great for literacy centers or reading centers, and it will also assist students with spelling. Materials: 1.5 -2.0 hole punch or round object that can be traced Craft paper Laminating sheets and laminator or Round wooden discs from the craft store and glue Playing cards: You can purchase blank playing cards on Amazon: see link at the bottom, or use laminated craft paper and then write the letters on the blank side with a permanent marker. How to make the game - using TCH and...

Improving Spelling for Students with Dyslexia

Not all students require the same remedial process even though they struggle with the same academic difficulties. Diverse combinations of cognitive processing weaknesses and deficits can unite to create the "perfect storm" that can cause challenges with reading, math, writing, spelling and more. In fact, no two students have the same cognitive profile, so to provide the optimal solution, one needs to consider both a student's strengths and weaknesses when designing a remedial approach. Occasionally, I like to present the questions emailed to me from parents and teachers. This week, I will share an email that I received from a parent in England as well as my response. Email received: Hi there: Love the website! Our son (age 8) is dyslexic and we have been told that he has a good visual memory (so he can easily spot a correctly spelled word and can even easily distinguish the correct meanings of similar sounding words e.g. sea and see). However, he has poor me...

5 Reasons Why Dyslexics Should Avoid a Foreign Language

Foreign language courses are mandatory for graduation in many high schools and colleges, however, for some students with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia, this requirement may feel insurmountable. Luckily, schools and even Ivy League colleges, such as Dartmouth, are now granting students with well-documented learning disabilities waivers of foreign language requirements. Laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 have now paved the way to reasonable accommodations and substitution courses that have widened the route to graduation. 5 Reasons Dyslexic Students Should Avoid Traditional Foreign Languages Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability , and learning a foreign language presents the same difficulties with decoding, spelling, and writing as with the English language. Foreign language teachers are not trained to identify and accommodate the diverse learning needs of students with learning disabilities. Most schools and colle...

Reading and Spelling Difficulties: 7 Main Causes

Here is a guest blog By David Morgan It is estimated that up to 10% of the general population struggles with dyslexia. Some studies call that a conservative estimate, with many more people struggling to read and spell. Many parents of dyslexic children or dyslexic adults find themselves in this situation, armed with a label but no real solution. Some feel it means that their child will never come to love reading. With the right help that is almost certainly not the case! Reading is a neurological process that the brain undertakes every time it is presented with text on the page. In order to target the primary cause of reading difficulty to find a solution, we have to look at different areas where that process can break down. There are seven main causes of reading and spelling difficulty that we have found to date. If you or someone you know is dyslexic, see if any of them match up with what you experience. 1. Optilexia - The main sign of Optilexia is gues...

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