As SLPs, we sometimes struggle to figure out what types of spelling activities we should be doing in speech therapy. Sometimes we wonder if we should be thinking about spelling words at all.
I mean, shouldn’t the teachers be the ones doing all the spelling activities and picking out the spelling words?
Well…yes they should. But since spelling is a language-based skill, and because we are language experts, we actually play a bigger role than we may think.
The way words are spelled and pronounced tie in to their meanings, which is why orthographic, morphologic, and phonologic features of words are such a huge part of vocabulary knowledge (Kucan, 2012).
I’m going to walk you through some widely-accepted spelling activities are counterproductive to building these skills. Then I’ll tell you what to do instead.
Let’s talk about the first one.
1. Copying spelling words over and over again for “practice”
Many students are assigned lists of spelling words, and then told they should go home and practice copying them over and over.
But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work.
Rote copying alone is unlikely to help students who have a hard time remembering spelling patterns. What happens is that the student may be able to remember the spelling for a short time, but won’t be able to spell it during a time they actually need it (like when they’re writing).
Asking a student to write a word is only useful if students attach meaning to what they’re writing. This is why instead of having students copying words, we should be explaining why words are spelled the way they are.
We can do this by showing them letter-sound relationships or pointing out word parts (Ram, Marinellie, Beningo, & McCarthy, 2013). This way students will be more aware of the relationships between the phonemes (sounds), morphemes, and graphemes (letters), as well as how they all fit together.
2. Asking students to find words within words that aren’t really words
Let me explain what I mean. I’ve seen teachers ask students to find a word within a bigger word to help them remember the spelling.
At the surface, this is one of those spelling activities that isn’t bad, but is often implemented incorrectly.
Here’s an example with the word, “potato”.
I’ve seen someone say, “Oh look, you can find the word ‘to’ in this word,” and then circle the “to”.
Here’s the problem: Even though the “t” and the “o” happen to be next to each other in this word, that letter sequence doesn’t represent a meaningful linguistic unit in this case.
We wouldn’t even pronounce the word “to” like you would pronounce the last two sounds in “potato”, because the last sound is a long “O”.
There’s little benefit to pointing this sequence out to your students. It might help them memorize the spelling in the short term, but it won’t really give them a lot of useful information.
Here’s another example of what NOT to do for the word “create”.
We would NOT want to circle “at” and call it a word within a word. “At” is not a morpheme that can function by itself in this situation, so it’s not useful for us to point it out.
Now, let’s see if we can get it right. Third time’s a charm.
We’ll use the word “react”.
We see the word “act” in this word.
Now, it’s meaningful because “act” is a free morpheme in this word that can stand alone. We can also point out “re”, because this is also a meaningful bound morpheme. We could take this a step further and build some other words using the word “act”, like “action”, or “actor”.
Any type of spelling activities you incorporate in to your therapy should focus on studying words and finding meaningful word parts, rather than random letter combinations.
As we break these words apart, we can also think about phonology as we think about the letters and sounds that make up the morphemes. This includes morphemes that don’t have a 1:1 correspondence between letters and sounds, but have a consistent meaning or pronunciation.
One example would be the suffix “ion”, which sounds like “shun”. One important note here; “tion” is often incorrectly identified as a suffix, when it’s really part of the preceding morpheme. For example, in words like “action” (act + ion), or “hibernation” (hibernate + ion).
3. Reduced spelling lists
This strategy alone isn’t bad, but it’s bad if done the wrong way. The “less is more” philosophy is often appropriate for students who need more explicit instruction in certain linguistic skills.
There just aren’t enough hours in the day to provide the intensity our students need, so we need to cover fewer skills with greater depth.
However, if we just randomly cut the spelling list in to fewer words, it might not be helpful.
The point of having a reduced list is to focus on fewer spelling patterns so that students can get more explicit instruction on specific spelling rules. In order for this practice to be beneficial, teachers should pay attention to the patterns that are a high priority for students.
This might not be something you do directly as an SLP, but you’ll likely be in on some of these conversations where decisions are made about student accommodations.
Your primary role here is to advocate for your students and get your colleagues on board with doing them strategically.
You also know there are a TON of outdated practices that only confuse your students with language processing issues.
Like writing lists of words over and over again to “practice” spelling…
Or randomly shortening spelling lists…
And memorizing sight word lists using rote drills.
You’re already starting to see that none of these things are working for your students.
But there’s good news.
You, as the SLP can make a massive impact on your students’ spelling, reading, and overall comprehension skills when you focus on the underlying language skills causing the problem in the first place.
By ditching those outdated methods…and instead, teaching them the basic rules of how words are put together!
…Teaching key orthographic concepts and spelling patterns kids needed for strong vocabulary skills…
…Or tying spelling to word definitions, so your students actually remember how words are spelled and WHY they’re spelled the way they are…
I give you the tools you need to do that in the Word Study Toolkit for SLPs.
If you want a free tour of what’s inside, check out this FB live video here.
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