my daughter is a bright spark of 5,5 and I used a variety of methods to teach her reading, including LR and reading eggs and flash cards. As a result - she now (sight) reads at a level of 10 y.o. (and comprehends) and she will read correctly words that sh’s never seen before. In school they take her for reading time to older classes when they have staff available. However - I must have missed her writing practise in some way (I didn’t think this would happen, I thought it would just “click”) The words she reads and the words she writes are not connected in her brain for some reason. She would read the most difficult new word correctly, but she can’t spell simplest 4-5 letter words when writing. Has anyone encountered with that?
I always praise her for any type of writing she does - as even drawing wouldn’t come easy to her, I think her drawings resemble a 3y.o child’s drawings at the moment, but I do have to correct her occasionally (gently, obviously) which makes her upset anyways, because she’s really trying.
In school they learn phonics now and she’s keen on her digraphs and tri-graphs (to sound them out on their own, she knows all of them) and to support this - when she’s writing in my presence I ask her to sound it out in phonics first then write down. It helps very little. I actually think it confuses her even more. If I am spelling a word for her out loud - she would write it correctly.
A friend of mine mentioned that she gets confused with phonics and they were never taught that in school, but instead were taught spelling rules. This makes sense to me, as English is my second language and this is how I learned (but I was a grown up at that point). But are these two separate things? and if yes - how would you teach a child spelling, what do you use?
I am unable to spell simple words without memorizing them, but I am dyslexic. You may want to get her checked for that. I was in honors classes my whole life and can read very well. I also finished collage English but spell at a third grade level. I am fully capable of spelling lots of large words used in everyday life, while unable to spell simple ones.
I am unsure about her inability to draw, I was always alble to draw age appropriate drawings. Good luck and I hope you find the answers your looking for.
This is exactly what I am going through with my 5.5 year old. She is reading on a 5th grade/10 year old reading level. Reads anything put in front of her. Even words she has never seen before. However, she can not spell. She can’t even spell 3 letter words! I do not understand this. Her teacher doesn’t understand this either. She learned to read using a combination of YBCR, LR and Reading Eggs. I have no idea how to over come this. She becomes very frustrated whenever she has to spell or write for school.
Any suggestions?
little update since I’ve started the post
I think we’re on some sort of progress now. I have started doing this game with her - every day (or so) I randomly ask her to spell a word. Sometimes a word we can see on a sign somewhere - she then “spell - reading” it letter by letter. I don’t bother her with it too much, just one to three words a day at different times or when I remember. She now occasionally initiates the game sight - spelling words she sees. So I’ve set a goal now to learn one spell word by heart a day. I first show her the written word, then ask her to spell it looking at it, then I remove the card out of the view and ask to spell again. I hang a card with this day’s word on the door or spell it on the fridge with magnets, then remove it next day and ask her to spell it by memory. We have just started doing that, but I am very hopeful now it will work, but it’ll take a while when the two things will get connected.
Don’t expect teacher to understand - not many teachers know much of sight-reading our children learnt, and those who do think it’s wrong. But with our sight-readers it just work in reverse to the other children - while in mainstream practice kids learn to make letters and sounds then combine them into words - our kids need to learn to break the words down into letters and sounds in order to write.
Don’t give up @Spunkin - try my approach, it might work for your daughter, even if for a little while.