Dictionary/spelling

[RamonaThePest]

My child (in junior school) is still spelling in a "phonetically plausible" fashion. e.g. clime for climb.

How do I move him toward correct spelling? Should he be using a dictionary? If so, can people recommend a particular one? We have a couple but they are not good enough, I don't think.

Also, maybe it sounds stupid, as a child I never really understood how to use a dictionary to find a word I couldn't spell as I felt I needed to know how to spell it to find it in there.

Maybe I am just a bit dim! Anyway, any comments on that or on other techniques (besides just asking me) for my child to spell words correctly.

They do see me using a dictionary. The story I read them yesterday had the word antimacassar which I had certainly never heard of so we had to look up!

In year 1 my daughter was given a dictionary in which they could write words themselves.

Often it would be key vocab for the topic they were covering or even just words the children often used but found difficult to remember.

Maybe you could give your dc a note book and label up the pages with the alphabet in order that you or your dc could write down the words that are frequently misspelled such as climb.

There is an alternative to a dictionary which is basically a dictionary without the definitions. Oxford Spell It Yourself - like a massive word list. Dictionaries can be a bit big and overwhelming for little ones. Useful for dyslexics too.

We have the Oxford Junior Illustrated Dictionary, which was recommended to me by a primary school teacher. I think it is pretty good as a first dictionary (we used it from about Yr2 onwards).

Thank you everyone, some good ideas.

OP says:

"Also, maybe it sounds stupid, as a child I never really understood how to use a dictionary to find a word I couldn't spell as I felt I needed to know how to spell it to find it in there."

As a child you were obviously a lot brighter than many teachers then and now, because a dictionary is absolutely not a spelling tool! It defines words and maybe gives their derivation and pronunciation...Of course you need to know how to spell a word before you can find it!

There is, however, something called the Ace Spelling Dictionary, where words are entered by 'sound' rather than alphabetically. It doesn't cover a very large number of words, but probably enough to be going on with.

Or you could try a spelling programme. I have seen the Promethean Trust's 'Apples and Pears' programme well recommended.

If it is any consolation, 'phonetically plausible' is always preferable to any old letters opimistically placed in random order

I don't know about everyone else, but I have certainly used a dictionary as a spelling tool. Obviously you would need to have an approximate idea of how to spell a word to be able to look it up. Seriously, maizieD, have you never used a dictionary to check the spelling of a word?