When Children Make a Lot of Spelling Mistakes

Tips to help children avoid making spelling mistakes

1. Develop phonological awareness

The first suggestion to help children overcome spelling mistakes is to help them become more aware of phonetics. This is something fundamental when it comes to the development of spelling.

Children need to know how to pronounce a word correctly before they can make an attempt at spelling it.

This means that children need to be able to recognize and distinguish the sounds within the recited words. Only then will they be able to print them.

However, some children have a weakness in the area of phonetics and pronunciation. In this case, parents and teachers should help them grow in this area.

2. Word games

The time to play and learn has arrived. Keep in mind that playing word games is a fun way to test children’s spelling abilities. At the same time, it’s a great opportunity to learn new words.

There is a wide variety of possibilities. Of course, the most classic games are Scrabble, Scattergories, Boggle and Upwords. These are excellent tools for helping little ones practice spelling and have a good time while they do it.

Don’t forget that children love games. Learning is always easier when you’re having fun .

3. Reciting short dictations

Third on our list of suggestions is reciting short dictations – one or two sentences – to help children make less spelling mistakes. You can improvize or even take them from a magazine or book that sparks your child’s interest.

At the same time, it’s important for children to have access to reference books, whether at school or at home. When the time comes to correct your child, you can discuss the mistakes and use them as a starting point for improvement.

4. Read frequently

Without a doubt, one of the best pieces of advice we can give you to improve children’s spelling is to encourage them to read often. Ideally, children should read at least 30 minutes a day.

Reading is an excellent exercise for developing vocabulary and improving the formation of sentences. This is because reading allows the brain to take in the words and sentences children read in a natural way.

At the same time, if you want to really motivate your children to read, look for reading materials that have to do with their interests. Of course, you also need to help your child find the time and place to carry out routine reading.

5. Make a drawing

Finally, you can also use drawing as a mnemonic device to improve spelling. Images are a great way for children to remember how words are spelled. To help your child in this area, you can always turn words that are hard to spell into images.

To go about doing this, all you need to do is create a drawing with whatever word your child is having a hard time with. Turn the letters into an image. That way, your child will have a graphic representation of the word that he or she can more easily retain.

As you’ve observed, there are many ways to help children improve their writing and avoid spelling mistakes. 

However, keep in mind that forcing them to carry out activities or being too demanding can be counterproductive. Rather than helping, you may only increase your child’s negative feelings about the issue.

We recommend trying out the above suggestions and trying to motivate your child in a positive way. None of the strategies will work if your child doesn’t have the proper motivation or isn’t interested in improving.