Severe Writing Problems

[IndigoBell]

DD (Year 3) has severe literacy problems (so please, I'm only looking for comments from very experienced teachers or the like)

Her writing is no more than a jumble of letters. School have just given her a scribe on her last assessment because her work can't be read at all. (No physical problems - her handwriting is fine)

She has very recently more or less got the hang of reading and has just been assessed as a 2b on an optional SATs paper. But her writing isn't improving yet (Apparently she's a Level 1 when working unaided).

She does an hour a day of Read, Write, Inc at school (and has been doing so for 3 years). And we obviously read every night at home.

What on earth shall I do with her at home?

AccelRead/AccelWrite?
Word Wasp?
Hornet?
Apples & Pears ?
Nessy ?
??????

What structured programs do you recommend?

Her writing is really bad. I've spent the last 4 years trying to teach her to read. And now the task of trying to teach her to write just seems impossibly daunting :(

Not to mention she's missed all of literacy last year to do RWI, so she needs to be taught absolutely everything :(

I've applied for a statement - but obviously chances are she won't get one.

Mrz, there is no pattern in up! ???
It has the regular spellings for the short /u/ sound - as in 'but, bud, bus, cub, cup, tub, run, rub...',
but I am aware that some regional accents don't use this sound. They have only the short oo of 'wood, could, put'.

Exactly!! yet you are claiming the spellings in the piece Indigo posted (where her daughter spelt up as gp ) could be corrected by simplifying spelling patterns!!
Indigo's daughter has difficulties so don't use her thread to promote your lists!

Mama, ...suddenly what she is writing is starting to be clear. Part of the reason she really struggles is that she finds it really hard to retain things.

A relatively weak memory, especially visual memory, is a huge handicap in learning to spell English, because 'correct' spelling is so dependent on it.
Learning the main patterns (bed, fed, led...) is relatively easy. The hard work consists of memorising which ones to spell differently, and how (said, head, friend...).
Learning the different alternative ways of spelling a sound (e.g. oo: too, true, shoe, flew, through, to, you, two) is not much use in itself either. We all had to learn to link the different spellings to particular words.

The lists of exceptions at englishspellingproblems.blogspot.com show how many common words have spelling quirks which pupils have to memorise in the course of their education. (And before anyone points out the obvious, I know we don't learn spell them as long lists. But they show the learning burdens for different spellings and useful for dipping into when teaching/learning a particular pattern or rule.)

And although schools try to teach most of the relatively HF words during the primary years, most of the 3700 tricky-to-spell words pupils have to pick up in their own way. A few (ca. 20 %, most of the people posting here) are lucky and able to do it without having to work at it, picking them up through reading (as my daughter did, as I mostly did). The rest all have to work at it, to a lesser or greater extent, with many never managing to become confident spellers despite working at it harder - because people's ability to memorise varies enormously.

Some people have fond memories of spelling tests, because they nearly always scored well. Many others were kept awake by them and dreaded going to school on the days on which they took place (e.g. my husband and also son).

Sorry about the touch of word-droppingites again:
learn to spell, ...and are useful...

LetThemBe - There are very few places that offer AIT in the UK. Probably the closest place to you is www.TracyAldermanait.co.uk Tracy Aldermanait in Shropshire.

www.TracyAldermanait.co.uk

Just another thought about practising to distinguish letter order:
You could do this with the sound grids game (as per booklet) if you use appropriate letters. Then ask dd to spell by jumping on the squares - things like tip, pit, tin, pin, nip, slip, split, spilt and so on!

Have fun!

Thanks Indigo, I'll have a look at that.