A New Tool To Help Kids Spell
Written By Savvy Auntie Staff Writers
By Maria Correa
If your nieces and nephews are having trouble learning to read, it may not be how they learn, but the language they’re learning. The English language is complicated; there are words that sound the same, but spelled very differently, and have different meanings. In a recent article in The Atlantic, Masha Bell, the vice chair of the English Spelling Society and author of Understanding English Spelling, says that far too many words in the English language are spelled with unpredictable lettering. Because of this, kids may get discouraged when learning to read.
While English spelling was once pretty simple, over time it has gotten more complicated, prompting people like engineer and applied linguist, Dmitry Orlov, to come up with a solution. Orlov developed his own writing system called Unspell, a system that teaches an easier way to learn spelling based on exactly how a word is pronounced. There are 13 symbols used in Unspell that help understand how to pronounce a word. Each one takes the place of a letter. The word becomes a series of symbols that refer to a sound. By learning the basics first, kids can then learn the more complicated rules on their own when they are ready.
If your niece or nephew needs some support, help them by sounding out the words with them instead of trying to have them focus on the spelling of the word. If you are interested, learn more about how Unspell works here -- it may be the perfect tool to help you learn together.
Published: February 25, 2015