Help with Spelling

[MissB75]

Hello

My (soon to be) step daughter who is 12 visited us last night and required help with her chemistry homework so I therefore was able to look through her school books.

Her spelling and handwriting are quite simply atrocious and I need to know what games I can get to help her in this area.

I want to make it more of a game and leisure activity rather than extra homework and something she can hopefully do on her own when she's out and about.

I was fortunate enough to not have problems in this area and it was also a long time ago that I left school so I have no idea what the 'trend' is these days.

Also - Do school teachers not correct spelling mistakes anymore? Her work was littered with them and none had been corrected?? Is this normal?

Thanks

Is it normal. Well, it depends. My son is severely dyslexic and dyspraxic and his is similar to your description.

He is getting better very slowly but it is slow and no amount of games will ever make it fast. We encourage him to use spell checkers with his work and comuterise it. He enjoys it, manages to achieve something at the same time (usually his homework) and his spelling is improving very slowly (which is to be expected.)

Not saying she has any of these problems but it might be a reason why.

No, he is not put right by the teachers as his underlying work is usally good and the spelling, if put right, would just make it look unworthy.

I think possibly she's just lazy rather than having any specific problem?

I get the impression she's not given much help and advice at home (we don't get her very often, long story) due to the lifestyle they lead and homework is not given the priority it deserves.

She doesn't like chemistry because she's not very good at it and her handwriting and spelling are much worse for this than Biology which she enjoys and is better at, hence why I don't think she has a problem.

She knows her spelling is not very good but doesn't bother with her dictionary.

Fair enough about the teachers not correcting children with a known problem as this will surely undermine them but when there doesn't appear to be one, surely that is bad? How will she ever know she got it wrong if she's not corrected?

She also goes to a private school where I would have thought there would be more time to devote this?

She could use google to find spellings rather than a dictionary. They are v slow and frustrating to use to be honest. (From mother of dyslexic son).