5 Ways to Support Your Child’s Spelling at Home
In a recent online parent workshop, Louise Corbett, our Year 4 Class Teacher, shared a comprehensive five-strategy approach to supporting children’s spelling development. The session emphasised that a consistent, short daily practice is key to building automaticity, freeing up mental space for more creative writing.
The key takeaways are:
Build a Daily Spelling Routine: Practice Makes Permanent
Why it matters: Regular, consistent practice helps children develop automaticity, freeing up mental space for creativity and fluency in writing.
How parents can help:
- Set aside 5–10 minutes daily for spelling games, dictation, or handwriting with spelling words.
- Revisit previously taught words to strengthen memory.
- Use low-pressure quizzes or sentence writing to reinforce recall.
Use Phonics to Segment and Spell
Why it matters: Phonics remains the foundation for spelling throughout primary school. Segmenting words into sounds helps children encode them accurately.
How parents can help:
- Encourage children to say a word slowly and break it into sounds (e.g., jump → /j/ /u/ /m/ /p/).
- Use magnetic letters or apps to build words from phonemes.
- Reinforce phonics patterns during reading and writing at home.
Explore Word Patterns and Meaning (Orthography & Morphology)
Why it matters: Understanding spelling patterns and word parts (like prefixes and suffixes) helps children choose the correct spelling and understand word meaning.
How parents can help:
- Point out patterns (e.g., “ck” never starts a word, “–ed” signals past tense).
- Break words into morphemes: replayed = re- + play + -ed.
- Use morpheme matrices or word-building games to explore how words are constructed.
Tackle Tricky Words with Mnemonics and Memory Aids
Why it matters: Common exception words don’t follow regular phonics rules and need special attention.
How parents can help:
- Create a “tricky word wall” at home.
- Use mnemonics (e.g., because = Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants).
- Highlight the “tricky” part of the word and practice it in context.
Encourage Writing Without Fear of Mistakes
Why it matters: Children need freedom to express ideas without being held back by spelling anxiety. Spelling can be refined later.
How parents can help:
- Praise creative word choices, even if they’re misspelled.
- Keep a personal spelling book to record and revisit tricky words.
- Use gentle correction strategies (e.g., underline errors, discuss them together).
Inspired by the insights? Don’t miss out on future learning opportunities!
Sign up for our upcoming parent workshops to gain more valuable strategies and connect directly with our expert teaching staff. Empower yourself to better support your child’s educational journey.