Reading/Spelling - do you visualise?

[PenElse]

I'm doing a little bit of research, and would really appreciate any responses on the following (for you, and your child if possible)

POLL: Can you mentally picture a word like 'cabbage' or 'bike' (for small kids) clearly enough to spell it backwards? Are you a good speller?

1. Yes - I'm a good speller
   
2. Yes - I'm a poor speller
   
3. No - I'm a good speller
   
4. No - I'm a poor speller
   
   Are you and your child the same? Different?
   
   Thank you!
   
   Pen

[Norestformrz]

1. Why would you want to spell it backwards?
2. What if you have more than one child?

[SandLand]

4

Spell a word backwards???? What kind of hell is that? Hard enough to go forwards.

[PenElse]

Well, you wouldn't normally be spelling things backwards(!), but it's a good way to tell how well the letters are being visualised.

The more children the merrier! I'm interested in it all.

[bruffin]

No cannit picture words at all
I learned rules
I hear the sounds
I say it wrong ( ie Wed Nes Day)
Spelling is good , but im in a house full of dyslexics who rely on me for spelling.

[bruffin]

But as you can see i cant type on a phone

[PenElse]

@bruffin - goodness! No pressure, then.....

[SandLand]

Why would you visualise a word? DH goes on about this to DS1 (who can't spell) and I don't understand it. He can't explain it to me.
DS2 looks to be a better speller.

[llangennith]

I visualise. See it in my mind on the page. DD1 (Mensa IQ) doesn't do this naturally but worked at it. She remembers stuff better if she hears it. I have to read it.
DGS2&3 are not good spellers and can't visualise but they remember everything they hear and have learnt loads from Audio books.

[PenElse]

@SandLand - oh, a mixed group, interesting!

Research suggests that good spellers routinely visualise words and can 'read the letters off' to write them down. Poor spellers seem not to do so. There could be any number of reasons for this, eg a tendency towards the 3-dimensional - so a brain that moves too fast for slow 2-D reading. Or, perhaps Visualisation isn't their particular strength so they've never realised it would help and don't quite know how to do it.

[PenElse]

@llangennith Wow, for me it's in one ear and out the other... I have to see things. Lectures were always a nightmare for me - talk talk talk...

I'm curious to know how your audio children organise the information in their minds once they hear it? How do they 'search' their memories?

[Norestformrz]

“Well, you wouldn't normally be spelling things backwards(!), but it's a good way to tell how well the letters are being visualised.” .** Not bliddy magical spelling?

[PenElse]

@Norestformrz Er, what...?

[Norestformrz]

In the Magical Spelling program children are taught to visualise words forwards and backwards utter nonsense!

[sirfredfredgeorge]

but it's a good way to tell how well the letters are being visualised

Why is it? how would distinguish it from a simple working memory span test (spell it normally, remember and repeat back?)

[grasspigeons]

I 'visualise' the word to spell it backwards, but I am very poor at spelling, so I would spell it wrong backwards or forwards, but they'd be the same mistake if that makes sense.

I am getting better through learning phonics with my children! My children are poor at spelling too. I don't know what they do to spell.

[PenElse]

@Norestformrz: I've worked very effectively with dyslexics by using similar methods, by the looks of it. I'm not, however, selling any such services.

@sirfredfredgeorge: I mean in the context of a visualisation exercise.

[LittleBearPad]

I visualise words. I’m a good speller.

DD (5) apparently can’t but she’s watching paw patrol so very uninterested in the experiment.

[PenElse]

@grasspigeons Ha ha, classic! I remember helping a friend's daughter with her spelling and got a bit ahead of myself - "I know, let's try a harder one, how about 'mediterranean'? It was only then I realised I wasn't sure how to spell it... I had to look it up and write it down first: medi/terra/nean.

Never lost it since, especially as the first two syllables mean 'middle earth'

[MrsElf]

1 for me and DH. No DC here to ask, sorry. PenElse - I struggled with lectures too - I learnt to write REALLY REALLY fast, and looking at my notes (from a depressingly long time ago), it's like I'm back in the lecture theatre again! What I didn't get down, I wouldn't even know I'd forgotten though.

[Norestformrz]

Etymology is a great help with spelling

[PenElse]

@LittleBearPad: Ha ! Probably hard to explain the exercise to a 5 yr old... Perhaps she can juggle the Paw Patrol characters around in her mind instead.

[Chickenkatsu]

What's the magical spelling program?

I've taught myself to visualise and I can easily spell them backwards, it's a really useful skill. It helps if you see them as scrabble letters.

[Norestformrz]

You need to visualise frogs then spell rhinoceros backwards

[PenElse]

@Norestformrz It certainly is a help! I've played with etymologically-based word lists before, eg: where -gress means 'move/step'
Digress
Regress
Progress
Aggress
Congress
Ingress etc etc

[PenElse]

@Chickenkatsu It seems to be a training programme for improving spelling - based on NLP methods. Fairly simple stuff, I think.

Yes, a very useful skill - and tricky for many, unfortunately.