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Original poster

What age is the child who did these spellings?

89 replies

ageandstage · 12/08/2023 11:13

And what age would you expect the child to get these words right?

The child in question asks me to give them words to spell, they think it's fun. I'm not forcing "work" on them in the holidays.
The correct spellings are my writing, the first set is my child's.

What age is the child who did these spellings?
OP posts:
BarbaraV · 12/08/2023 11:30

6?

Whu · 12/08/2023 11:30

Year 2/3?

They are not year 1 curriculum words for those who are saying they are.

Whitewolf2 · 12/08/2023 11:31

Many of those spellings are more difficult than our yr 2 ones were, I’d say they should be getting them right maybe year 3? So aged 8ish? From the writing/spellings I’d guess your child is 6.

liveforsummer · 12/08/2023 11:31

My dyslexic nearly 14 year old might make a lot of these mistakes 😆

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 12/08/2023 11:31

Child about to go into yr 3

Viviennemary · 12/08/2023 11:34

No idea. But spelling does need attention.

Yesabsolutely · 12/08/2023 11:34

About 6-7.

Busubaba · 12/08/2023 11:37

7/8.

namechg · 12/08/2023 11:38

6

EmmaGrundyForPM · 12/08/2023 11:38

7 or 8. Year 3

Schemes · 12/08/2023 11:38

Going in to year two.

coreas · 12/08/2023 11:39

WandaWonder · 12/08/2023 11:24

Are you asking if your child is gifted?

They got most of them wrong, so probably not?

Mammyloveswine · 12/08/2023 11:39

Viviennemary · 12/08/2023 11:34

No idea. But spelling does need attention.

They have spelled them phonetically so I would say around 6/7 (year 2)

Original poster
ageandstage · 12/08/2023 11:39

I agree with the poster who gave the example of year 1 words - they match up with what my youngest child (going into primary 2) is doing at the moment.

The child who did these spellings is almost 10, going into Primary 6 next week. We're in Scotland so curriculum will be different but not by much.

Is spelling like this at this age a huge concern? What can I do to help?

They read a lot and are ahead in maths. The end of primary 5 test showed they are working at age 11+ level in maths but do struggle with spellings. Reading level is appropriate to age.

OP posts:
namechg · 12/08/2023 11:39

Are you worried, OP?

Highdaysandholidays1 · 12/08/2023 11:40

Just a tip- if your child asks to do spellings and they are not very good at that level, throw in some easier ones they can get right, with the odd harder one. Mind you my dd struggled from year 1 onwards even with easier spellings so it's not a fool-proof technique. Or learn three spellings (easy ones) and then do them the next day, build up. It can be fun doing spelling, even with not so great spellers. We have taught my dd a lot of tricks to get round this issue (so she has a job where she has to spell names so she always asks how do you spell that, even for 'Jones'!)

Original poster
ageandstage · 12/08/2023 11:42

Highdaysandholidays1 · 12/08/2023 11:40

Just a tip- if your child asks to do spellings and they are not very good at that level, throw in some easier ones they can get right, with the odd harder one. Mind you my dd struggled from year 1 onwards even with easier spellings so it's not a fool-proof technique. Or learn three spellings (easy ones) and then do them the next day, build up. It can be fun doing spelling, even with not so great spellers. We have taught my dd a lot of tricks to get round this issue (so she has a job where she has to spell names so she always asks how do you spell that, even for 'Jones'!)

Thank you. Good tip. I will do that easily, may help build confidence too.

I usually just look up a list of words similar to what a PP posted but suitable for their age. These came up as year 4 (primary 5) words.

OP posts:
namechg · 12/08/2023 11:44

There are lots of apps and online help. Try something like spellingframe.co.uk online.

Highdaysandholidays1 · 12/08/2023 11:45

@ageandstage this was the age (just before SATS) that the school admitted my dd couldn't spell and just accepted she lost the marks on the SATS for that, high results in everything else. She is an ace reader and has good comprehension, it's literally a word blindness to seeing how words should look. We did not get a private assessment til just before GCSEs, probably should have jumped sooner. At college my dd has a lot of support and we all just encourage her to work cleverly and well around this issue, her academic ability is high and she's likely to go to uni.

So, don't panic that all is lost if you have a really poor speller, it worried me for so long she wouldn't be able to write emails but now with spell-checkers, Grammarly, us reading her emails prior to sending, her own knowledge she can't spell (so when to check) plus adaptations, we are muddling through.

itsgettingweird · 12/08/2023 11:48

That better than my ds attempts at spelling would be.

He's 18 🤦‍♀️

I'm not much better but I am able to apply phonetically sense to spelling whereas he cannot.

Highdaysandholidays1 · 12/08/2023 11:49

There are also programmes for poor spellers you can get online or do in workbooks, and so I'd go for encouraging getting the basic words right as if you crack most of these, most of our writing is basic words, with a few extras!

Make it fun though, and a challenge- have some smarties, or buttons, do one hard word and one easy word a day, I wouldn't personally put crosses next to everything and correct it, that's too much for one learning session. Make 'bets', I bet you two buttons you can't remember these for tomorrow...

If the child has ongoing issues, seek a private assessment. Our schools all denied there was an issue as my dd was really bright, and downplayed it, until it became a real problem.

dahliadazed · 12/08/2023 11:51

Would your DD be happy to use something like Nessy?

My DS is a really poor at spelling because he’s severely dyslexic but technology really helps.

BTcomplaint · 12/08/2023 11:51

Looks very similar to my son’s at that sort of age- he’s dyslexic. He could generally learn them for spelling tests though but they didn’t ‘stick’ for ongoing use. He also really struggled (still does) with pronouncing unfamiliar words he’d only seen written.
Primary school refused to believe there was a problem so we got a private assessment who confirmed it. Secondary school have been fantastic though and he gets to use laptop (inc for some of his exams) and gets extra time for assessments / exams.

Appleblum · 12/08/2023 11:53

Around 6 to 7. The spellings given by the child all look like they were spelt phonetically, which is what my DD used to do at age 6/7 when she hadn't learnt how to spell them properly.

BTcomplaint · 12/08/2023 11:53

(We’re also in Scotland. Wheels fell off at primary school in P6 and it took him really until s3 to regain any confidence in himself at school - though to be fair covid won’t have helped either)