Spelling strategies that work for dyslexic learners

Children with dyslexia often learn a spelling on Monday and lose it by Friday. The reason is usually that they met the word once, in one way.

Say it, build it, write it

Say the word aloud, break it into sounds, build it with letter tiles or magnetic letters, then write it. Three modalities in two minutes.

Teach the pattern, not the word

Words that share a rule (light, night, bright) stick better together than words from a random list. Ten words in a family beats forty in isolation.

Use a personal dictionary

Collect only the words a child actually needs: their name, their street, the words they use in their own writing. Meaningful words stick.

Practise to fluency, not to first success

A word is learned when it can be written correctly on three separate days. Space the practice and accept that ten well-learned words beat a weekly list of twenty.