Year 4 daughter – struggling with spelling

[Anothercupofteacanthurt]

My daughter (turning ten in autumn) is at the end of Year 4. She has always struggled with spelling. Any thoughts on whether this is a sign of something we should investigate and - even if it isn’t - how we might be able to help her? She:

Loves to read.

Has very clear handwriting.

Is articulate with a great vocabulary.

Really struggles to tell the time.

Passes every spelling test with full marks – but those spellings seem to then be forgotten.

Panics under pressure and tends to rush her work.

Some examples of the words she misspelled in one short piece of work today: evreyone (everyone), importante (important), juniour (junior), outhers (others), wich (which), speek (speak).

Thank you so much!

Have school said anything or offered suggestions?How did she do in her Y1 phonics check?
Her spelling shows good phonic knowledge and most read as they should sound except outhers.

Maybe some difficulties with working memory?
Displaying y4 high frequency words (and maybe some from previous years) may help. Laminated copies of words she struggles with on her table or inside her books could help.

Multisensory teaching and learning will help her to embed the spellings. Chalk, water on a brush etc outdoors for writing. Squirty bottles for writing names and words. Those triangle phonic flip aids would help to see patterns with spellings.

Different ways to record would also support e.g.increased use of IT. If handwriting isn’t a focus Dragon software types as she speaks. Clicker Sentences supports with writing and spelling.
Writing Wizard on a tablet is multisensory, you can enter your own words for her to write over with a finger or stylus. Multisensory and rewarding.

Re telling the time is it just analogue time or does she struggle with digital too? There will be lots of resources online to help with this.

Different versions available. Some are in class packs

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freestanding-Manipulative-Spelling-Educational-Learning/dp/B0C4KYYRSQ/ref=asc_df_B0C4KYYRSQ?mcid=845f4280fe013eb0aa630277f9a19c70&hvocijid=18215160781100617030-B0C4KYYRSQ-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18215160781100617030&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9195089&hvtargid=pla-2281435176698&psc=1&gad_source=1

Thanks for your reply. She missed one mark in her phonics test.

She was put in a ‘catch-up’ group of some sort last year (we did not know this was happening and then she was removed from it. It seemed to be for children really struggled with overall academics, which she isn’t. She is above expectations for English despite her spellings and apparently is very close to the same in maths)

I haven’t asked her about digital, but she definitely struggled with the analogue clock we have.

I’ll look up high frequency words.

Thanks again!

You should have been told about the catch up group. Sometimes when children are writing more fluently they can forget to apply previous knowledge.
Great mark in her phonics test.
Does she struggle with organisation at all? If so look at executive function.
Analogue time can be hard to master and even adults can struggle. Digital time and displays everywhere.

It's brilliant she loves to read, that will really benefit her! Have they mentioned screening for dyslexia? My dyslexic DD could always learn spellings for tests but then forget them straight away. I think struggling to tell the time is often common with dyslexia, but again tricky for lots of children.

She is organised - likes to have things tidy. Loves following rules and doing everything ‘right’.

She was assessed for possible ASD a few years ago but we were eventually told that she didn’t meet the threshold.

Think we’ll focus on time and reinforcing high frequency words and homophones this summer. I suspect that will be a greater focus in year five and I don’t want her to feel that she is ‘behind’.

No one has mentioned screening. I think I’ll mention it to her new teacher next term (school are pretty receptive so hopefully we can all keep an eye on things)

Sounds very like DD who was diagnosed as dyslexic when she was about 8. 10 out of 10 on tests but awful spellings of the same words the next day. She couldn’t deal with names in books. She always said “I’ll just call them Sam” or something like that. She still can’t do analogue clocks. Very academic and great at maths and sciences but languages were totally beyond her. It has not held her back at all. She went to a top uni and has a great job. We were lucky that we could afford an assessment but do try to get your DC screened or assessed if you can as it made so much difference to her confidence to know that she wasn’t stupid (as some unhelpful friends kept saying).

Nessy do an inexpensive dyslexia check which she completes by doing "games" online. You'd have to look at it carefully yourself first though to make sure she understood what to do and iirc there is one "game" where the person administering the test has to read things out.
School are also likely to have a dyslexia screening programme and they might be willing to screen her for dyslexia.

It is possible to be good at reading but still be dyslexic.

Screening programmes don't pick up everyone who is dyslexic ( Dyslexia Action reckon that about 10% don't get picked up) but they are a good place to start.

I'd work on homophones over the summer.

Make some matching word and picture cards for eg pair and pear, sale and sail and then you can play games with them

Eg how quickly can she match/ sort the pairs of cards, pairs game where you have to pick up a matching word and picture to keep the cards, lotto where you set out the pictures in a grid like a lotto board and take turns to pick the words out of a bag. If it matches your "board" put it on top of the picture if it doesn't put it back in the bag etc.
It might be particularly good to focus on ee/ea homophones as there are absolutely no rules about why one is used rather than the other - everyone just has to learn them.

Also, for ee/ea words, even without ones which have homophones.
, make some cards with the ee/ea letters blanked out, so sp_k, grn, hp, p_ch etc. start with about 6 and get her to sort them into ee and ea piles. Then as she learns these add more in.

Also, if she likes drawing you can link spellings with a picture.
Eg pick 6 ea words. Beach, peach, tea, heap, meat, weak. Make a sentence.
"I eat meat and a heap of peaches and drink weak tea on the beach." Then write the sentence and draw the picture. The sillier the better!

Edited because of awful autocorrect of homophone to homophobe!