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Original poster

Reading - does anyone have a 7 year old who can read

54 replies

Carla · 20/09/2005 19:20

  • almost most things, and if she can't she has a really good try, but whose spelling doesn't cut the mustard? She has her class divided into 4, but is only in the second stream on her spelling.
OP posts:
serenity · 20/09/2005 19:23

Yes, DS1 is really good reader, but his spelling is.......unpredictable, to be generous. His handwriting is appalling too!

charliecat · 20/09/2005 19:24

dds spelling on paper is quite awful but ask her to spell something and say it and she gets it right 100% of the time. Really weird.

happymerryberries · 20/09/2005 19:25

Sounds just like my dd.

She is 8 and is at the very top end for reading (has a reading age of about 13, essentialy can read anything you give her). She is fairly dire at spelling ,eg Verry

because she reads like an adult she doesn't read all the word IYSWIM and this isn't helping her

happymerryberries · 20/09/2005 19:25

And and her handwriting is awful too!

gigglinggoblin · 20/09/2005 19:26

ds is 6 and his reading is well above average but spelling is quite dodgy. hows = house

LIZS · 20/09/2005 19:26

Yup, ds can read well and has good comprehension but not spelling, handwriting etc. Sounds as if he is being given extra support in school too.

tamum · 20/09/2005 19:39

What a fab thread, such a relief. Yes, dd is an excellent reader but an atrocious speller. Again, she can spell things better if she concentrates on a single word than when she's writing, but when she's in the middle of writing it has to be seen to be believed.

Tinker · 20/09/2005 19:43

Another here - 8 year good reader, bad speller. Can spell for spelling tests but out of that context...hmm!

Majorca · 20/09/2005 21:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

vickiyumyum · 20/09/2005 21:27

ds1 is 8 and his reading and spelling is very good, his spelling is probably better than mine! but his hand writing is truly appalling, you can hardly read it, he used to spend hours practising but it has made very little difference.

vickiyumyum · 20/09/2005 21:28

he has been reading since he was about 4.5 basically and since he started full time school has always been top of his class for reading and spelling ( at my immodesty with my ds!)

Fimbo · 20/09/2005 21:32

Another 7 year old here who can read most things, awful spelling, yet in the top group for hand-writing!

Catflap · 20/09/2005 21:32

This is common - this is largely due to children who have a strong whole-word visual strategy for recognising the shape of whole words when they see them, or have other strategies like guessing from pictures and the sentence and using partial phonics to make a good guess. This all gives the impression of good reading. However, they have clearly not been taught the aplhabetic code adequately enough e.g. the 40+ speech sounds and their letter combinations to represent these words in their writing. Their memories are also not sufficient for remembering each part of the word for spelling after they have seen it in their reading so they are either remembering incorrectly the whole shape or the order or letters or are hearing the sounds in the words they want to write but lack the knowlegde to represent all these sounds accurately. This is a product of literacy teaching today. It always amazes me how the parents are so quick to notice this, yet the teachers are not....

Janh · 20/09/2005 21:36

DS2 read v well v early, but went on spelling things his own way for a long time - can't think of any examples now (he is 12) but we used to have some great laffs when he wasn't looking.

Spelling is a knack IMO, some people pick it up straight away and some people never quite get it. English spelling is so eccentric it's hardly surprising!

LIZS · 20/09/2005 21:37

catflap that sounds exactly likes ds but how do you get around it ? Don't think ds would appreciate returning to Jolly Phonics type level work especially since his 4yo sister is now doing it. I suppose I could get him to "help" her.

Miaou · 20/09/2005 21:43

dd2 is a pretty fluent reader (she is 7 next month), but her spelling is quite poor - she spells very basic words wrong. However she is quite slapdash with her work so I think she just doesn't put in the effort.

Also a great one for guessing words from the first few letters and the context rather than actually "reading" it - very different strategies for reading than me and dd1 so I get quite frustrated with her at times. Poor kid.

Original poster
Carla · 20/09/2005 22:01

Tinker - same here - OK for spelling tests as long as we've gone over them enough, but once the test's over seems to forget the whole lot!

Catflap, that sounds fascinating - I'd like to recite that parrot fashion to dds teacher , but then how would you account for the more able pupils? What luck happened to them, if that's the case?

OP posts:
katymac · 20/09/2005 22:01

DD is very good at reading and I think quite good at spelling (but not too confident). Her school used a system called THRASS to learn to read & spell - I think it really helped her - but others in her class just didn't get it

yoyo · 20/09/2005 22:05

DD2 is exactly like this. She loves writing but her spelling is shocking except that it makes sense. She has been taught the sounds that letter combinations make but English just isn't that straightforward. You know what she has written except that it is incorrect. Her teacher seems to think it is unimportant but I am quite concerned about it especially as DD1 is a fantastic speller. I hope it will "click" soon.

sparklymieow · 20/09/2005 22:06

Ds is 7 and when the school assessed his reading at 7yrs 5months his reading age was 9yrs 8 months, his spelling was 9yrs 5 months. He has Cerebral palsy and he puts his all into his reading and spelling and maths because his physical skills are poor. His handwriting is terrible and he struggles with projects that require manual skills.

yoyo · 20/09/2005 22:06

katymac - THRASS here too but DD1 was taught at a different school for the early years. Not keen on it myself.

tamum · 20/09/2005 22:09

I agree with yoyo, don't think it's as simple as that. Dd was actually taught far more phonics than ds, who spelt well quite effortlessly from an earlier age.

marthamoo · 20/09/2005 22:15

Yes, my friend's ds - well, he's 8, but near enough. He reads brilliantly (eg., Harry Potter) but his spelling is atrocious as is his handwriting.

I also agree with Jan - some people just 'can' spell and some can't. My Mum is very bright, was a teacher, but she can't spell for toffee. And she loves crosswords - not a good combination. I can spell (cue for someone to go through all my posts and find spelling mistakes) and if I'm there she asks me how to spell every second word I can generally 'see' if a word is spelled incorrectly - my Mum can't.

katymac · 20/09/2005 22:17

DD did phoics for 18m then went on to THRASS - it worked for her

But as I said other children in the class struggled with it.

It has certainly helped my spelling and I was really awful now I'm just plain bad

WhenI learnt to read the school system was changing the way reading was taught.....I've always been a good reader/bad speller....but it's getting better

singersgirl · 21/09/2005 12:43

You can certainly see the 'whole word' approach come out in DS1's spelling. He is actually an excellent speller and reader (with spelling age assessed as 9.3 at 6.0, FWIW), but still might make a mistake such as putting "loin" for "lion" - phonetically that's just not plausible but he's remembering a pattern wrongly.
I think it is a knack for some people - I've always just 'seen' the letters in words and wrong spellings just look so wrong to me that I can't see how someone else can't see it. However, solid phonics teaching can definitely help.