Spelling - should I be concerned or not

[maisykins]

DD's spelling has been concerning me for a while but teacher in yr 2 said it was okay "for this age". She is now 7.5 and going into yr 3.

I am still wondering - so thought I would ask on here.
Examples from today's shopping list which she wrote today for her teddy:

aleples (apples)
ogers (oranges)
leters (lettuces)

Other typical examples from recent days (she loves to write stories and notes and things)

siad (said)
rigth (right)
brour (brother)
briger (bridge)
castlis (castles)

I appreciate that children write phonetically at this age but I do wonder if there is more to it. Or am I being precious about it?
Any views? If it is still "normal" then can someone say at what age you would be concerned about this sort of spelling.
Thanks for any help!

Some of those spellings suggest that she is not very sure on sound/letter correspondences ie which letter could represent which spoken sound. Can you try asking her to say 'oranges' slowly and then see what she writes? Something like 'orinjes' would make more sense. You couldn't read 'ogers' to get an 'n' sound.

It looks to me as if she is remembering the look of the word as a whole (eg rigth, ogers, siad) but mixing letters up. DS1 did that quite a lot in Y1 and early in Y2.

Not sure if that is any help or not!

Thanks for the reply. I do think she just remembers the look of a word rather than sounding it out (she does this when reading as well) but will this correct itself do you think or does it need some intervention from me/school?

How much of her writing is misspelt? Look at one of her stories and count the number of words spelt correctly and incorrectly.

The examples you have given suggest she isn't using phonics apart from perhaps the initial sound/letter of the word. In Year 2 I wouldn't expect children to be able to spell every word correctly but I would be concerned that the attempts aren't phonetically plausible. As singersgirl says orinjes would be a phonetically plausible attempt and acceptable in Year 2 but ogers indicates there is a slight problem which I would want addressing if I was her teacher. A good phonics programme would help IMO.

Well I have looked at some more work. All has misspellings. For example 15 out of 58 words misspelt including:

conve (cover - I think)
anmiss (animals)
nigth (night)
wudfull (wonderful)
ather (after)

To be honest it is a struggle to read some of it and I find it hard to think it is considered okay by her teacher but I did question it at the teacher meetings each term and they said not to worry - she is not my only child and I realise it can be unfair to compare siblings but it just seems odd to me. Should I be pushing the year 3 teacher about this or should I get a phonics programme for at home - if so can anyone suggest something I can get to use at home?

Has your daughter had a hearing test? or does she have any problems pronouncing these words correctly? Sorry for asking but sometimes there is a really simple solution to problems

She did have hearing problems when young - at age 2 she had grommets put in. Since then she was given the all clear and has seemed fine. Her speech was delayed as a toddler but is now fairly good - some problems with trickier words but she can say above words like "animals" "oranges" "night" etc without any trouble. One thing she still does which all her peers seem to have outgrown is she mixes up her pronouns - is forever calling females "he" or referring to "his" instead of "hers" for example. Don't know if there is any connection?

If children haven't been hearing clearly it puts them at a disadvantage and they can often be slightly behind other members of the class in spelling (but usually catch up with help so don't worry).
The government have published a free phonics programme which works really wellcheck information for parents
Tesco are selling whiteboards and pens for about a pound at the minute and it means your daughter can write the word and rub it out if it's wrong or correct quite easily so worth using so are magnetic letters.
I would start by checking she can hear sounds in words ~ first ~ last ~ all in the correct order. Say the word slowly and clearly and ask her to think about the sounds.

Thanks for that - will def look at those ideas.

I teach yr 1 and would be concerned with some of these spellings as they are not spelt phonetically. I would get her hearing checked and have a word with her new teacher in September.

I will see what I can do. I just have a feeling it is not right. Thanks.