A free 3-minute check that shows where the spelling gets stuck
A child who can read but cannot spell is stuck in one of three places: hearing every sound, picking the letter for a sound, or keeping the order. Each one needs a different push. Do this check together. It takes about three minutes, and your child needs a pencil and paper.
How to do it: do not teach and do not correct. Just listen, and tap what your child could do. Nothing you tap is sent anywhere.
Keep the screen turned away from your child for the whole check. Say each word. Your child says its sounds one by one, with nothing written down. Show how once with the word “at”: two sounds. Tap each word where your child says every sound, in order.
Say the short sound of each letter below, one at a time, not its name: a as in apple, e as in egg, i as in igloo, o as in octopus, u as in up. Your child writes the letter. Tap each one written correctly.
Say each word once, at normal speed. Your child writes it. Tap each word where every letter is there, in the right order.
In reading, the letters are on the page and your child turns them into sounds. In spelling there is nothing on the page. Your child has to pull the word apart into sounds, hold them in order, and pick a letter for each one. It is reading backwards, and it is the harder direction. So is it normal for a child to read but not spell? At five and six, yes.
It is not a diagnosis, and it is not a test for dyslexia. A child who reads before they can spell is following the usual order. If your child is seven or older and still cannot write short words, or finds reading very hard too, tell their teacher what you saw and ask what the school has noticed.
More help: Why can’t my child blend sounds? A free check · Why does my child mix up b and d? A free check
