Spelling And Writing Help

Spelling For Dyslexia: Help With Spelling And Written Work

Spelling asks more of a child than reading does, and in dyslexia the difficulty often lasts into the teenage years. Dr Lauren Crumlish (PhD), Certified Practising Speech Pathologist, teaches spelling from speech to print, online, to children and teenagers up to 18 across Australia. Sessions are $193. Every child starts with an assessment. Where reading or spelling is the concern it is $890 or $1,290.

Apply Now One word, taught in four stages

A girl with plaits smiles at a laptop and holds up a word card, with more word cards spread across the table.

Why Spelling Stays Behind Reading In Dyslexia

If your child is struggling with spelling after their reading has started to move, nothing has gone wrong. Spelling is the harder half of the same skill, for four reasons.

Reading gives the letters. Spelling asks for them.

To read “said”, a child has to recognise it. To spell it, they have to produce every letter, in order, with nothing on the page to help. A word a child reads easily can still be one they cannot write.

One sound can be spelled several ways

Going from print to speech, a spelling usually points to one sound. Going from speech to print, a sound offers a choice. The k sound alone is written k, c, ck, qu or ch, as in king, cat, back, queen and chorus. Vowels have more options again. A reader meets one of these at a time. A speller has to choose.

The difficulty underneath is with sounds

People with dyslexia have trouble storing and working with the sounds of speech, which is the core of the condition. A child who cannot pick out every sound in a word leaves letters out, so “jumped” comes out as “jupt”. That is a difficulty with the sounds of speech showing up on paper, and it is why spelling for dyslexia starts with the spoken word. The research is set out in why children with dyslexia struggle with writing, a 2018 article in a speech pathology journal.

Spelling takes the attention writing needs

A child who has to think hard about each word has less left for the sentence. Poor spellers may keep to the words they are sure of, so written work looks younger than the way the child talks.

English spelling is more regular than it looks

About half of English words can be spelled correctly from their sounds alone, and another 34 percent with one error. Only about four percent are truly irregular. The figures are in How Spelling Supports Reading by Louisa Moats. This is the reason to teach the system, not the words one by one. Explicit teaching of sounds, patterns and word parts is also what the evidence on dyslexia treatment supports.

A Worked Example

Speech To Print: One Word, Four Stages

Speech to print teaching starts from the spoken word, not from a list to memorise. Here is the word “stopped” taken through the four stages. A child who writes “stopt” has heard the word correctly. What is missing is stages three and four.

Sounds: say it and count

The base word is “stop”. Said slowly it has four sounds: s, t, o, p. Nothing is written until each sound has been said.
Letters: a spelling for each sound

Each of the four sounds is matched to its letter, in order: s, t, o, p. Now “stop” is on the page.
Patterns: why the p doubles

“Stop” has one short vowel followed by one consonant. Before a suffix (an ending) that starts with a vowel, that last consonant doubles: stopped, stopping. The same pattern spells hopped, planned and running.
Word parts: why it ends in ed

The ending sounds like t, but it is spelled ed because it marks the past. The same ed is in jumped, played and wanted, however it sounds.

Lists, Writing And Where Dr Lauren’s Part Ends

One word taught this way teaches many. A child who learns “stopped” by rote has learned seven letters. A child who learns it by sound, pattern and word part can spell a family of words they have never practised.

Why do weekly spelling lists not stick?

A weekly list asks a child to hold strings of letters in memory until Friday. For a child with dyslexia that memory is the weak point, so the words often do not last past the test. A list of unrelated words also leaves nothing to carry over to new ones. A 2020 review of spelling interventions for learners with dyslexia found that teaching sounds and letters, spelling patterns and word parts each improved spelling. It could not confirm an effect for memorising strategies.

If your child’s school sends lists home, ask for words grouped by one pattern, and fewer of them. The guide to dyslexia at school covers what to ask for.

How does dyslexia affect writing?

Dyslexia and writing difficulty go together because writing rests on spelling. When spelling is slow, a child writes less, chooses simpler words and loses the thread of the sentence. Written expression is also a language skill: building a sentence, joining two ideas, putting points in order. Dr Lauren assesses the language skills underneath writing as well as spelling, and the plan she sets works on what the assessment shows. Sessions teach the skills. They do not work through homework or school assignments.

What about handwriting?

Handwriting is where Dr Lauren’s part ends. Letter formation, pencil grip and the physical side of writing are the work of an occupational therapist.

Are spellcheck and voice typing enough?

Spellcheck and voice typing are supports, not substitutes. Spellcheck only works when the attempt is close to the word. In a 2001 study it found the intended word for students with learning disabilities 53 percent of the time, and it does not notice a real word used wrongly, such as “here” for “hear”. Dictation lets a child get ideas down at the speed they think, and the child still has to read the result back and fix it. Both are worth using while spelling is taught. The guide to assistive technology covers the tools.

What does the first assessment look at?

Every child starts with an assessment. Where reading or spelling is the concern it is $890 or $1,290. For spelling it usually looks at words written to dictation, a sample of your child’s own writing, how well they hear the sounds in spoken words, their reading, and their spoken language. The errors show which stage is missing: sounds, letters, patterns or word parts. It is not a diagnosis. A formal dyslexia diagnosis is usually made by a psychologist. Sessions are by video, typically weekly to fortnightly. More on the first assessment and on how online sessions work.

Progress in spelling is usually checked two ways: spelling of dictated words that use what has been taught, and spelling in your child’s own sentences. Dyslexia is lifelong and no one can promise how quickly spelling will change.

Who teaches your child?

Dr Lauren Crumlish holds a PhD from The University of Queensland, where her thesis received the 2024 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Higher Degree by Research Theses, and she is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist. She is the only clinician, so the person who assesses your child is the person who teaches them. Spelling tutoring with Dr Lauren is the same session at the same fee. She uses the title Dr because of her PhD and is not a medical practitioner. Read more about Dr Lauren.

Spelling and reading are taught together, because both run on the same links between sounds and letters. If reading is the larger worry, see how reading is taught. For high school students, see dyslexia therapy for teenagers.

Sources

Moats (2005/06), How spelling supports reading, American Educator
Hebert and colleagues (2018), why children with dyslexia struggle with writing and how to help them , Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools
Galuschka and colleagues (2020), spelling interventions for learners with dyslexia , Educational Psychologist
ASHA Practice Portal, Written Language Disorders
healthdirect, Dyslexia (last reviewed December 2024)

Fees

What Spelling Help Costs

Every child starts with an assessment. Where reading or spelling is the concern it is $890 or $1,290.

Spelling and writing sessions

Session

45 minutes of therapy, plus 15 minutes of preparation and notes

$193

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The first assessment

$890

Mid-Length Assessment

A focused look at reading, spelling and the language underneath
$1,290

Long Assessment

A fuller look at both language and literacy

A Medicare rebate may apply with a doctor’s referral, for a limited number of sessions a year, if your GP decides your child is eligible. Dr Lauren is not NDIS registered; self-managed and plan-managed participants are welcome. The detail is on fees and funding .

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Spelling Help Questions

Spelling Help Questions, Answered

How can I help my dyslexic child with spelling?

Start from the spoken word. Have your child say the word slowly, count its sounds, and write a spelling for each sound before worrying about whether it looks right. Practise a few words that share one pattern, not a long mixed list. Correct by pointing to the sound that was missed, not by spelling the word out for them. Keep spelling separate from ideas: let them get a story down first, then fix three words.

How do you improve spelling?

Spelling improves when a child is taught how the system works. That means the sounds in a word, the letters that spell each sound, and the patterns that decide which spelling is used where. It also means the word parts that carry meaning, such as ed and ing. Writing a word out ten times trains memory for one word. Learning why it is spelled that way carries over to others.

Is difficulty spelling always dyslexia?

No. Spelling difficulties have more than one cause. A child may not have been taught the patterns, may have a speech or language difficulty, or may be learning English as a second language. Problems spelling that come with slow, effortful reading and trouble hearing the sounds in words point towards dyslexia. An assessment shows where the difficulty sits and what to teach first. A formal dyslexia diagnosis is usually made by a psychologist.

Why can my child read but not spell?

Reading is recognition and spelling is recall. A child can recognise a word they could not produce from memory, and English gives a speller several ways to write most sounds. In dyslexia this gap is common, and spelling difficulty often lasts into the teenage years.

What spelling programs are used for dyslexia?

The spelling programs with evidence behind them share three features. They teach the sounds in words and the letters that spell them, they teach spelling patterns, and they teach word parts such as prefixes and endings. Each is taught explicitly, in order, with review. Those features matter more than the name on the box. Dr Lauren plans her teaching from each child’s assessment.

Is it too late to work on spelling in high school?

No. The long words in subject work, such as “photosynthesis” or “unpredictable”, are built from word parts: roots, prefixes and endings. That is where spelling teaching for older students starts, because one word part learned carries over to every word that uses it. The page on dyslexia therapy for teenagers covers the high school years.