Raising Smarter Children

If you’re child is having a tough time remembering their spelling words, in weely or standardized tests, the best tip is to use the mental image strategy that spelling bee champions use.  If your child suffers week after week with low spelling grades, the good news is this visual spelling strategy will also help improve their self-esteem.

Author, Thomas Armstrong, says, ““The Super Speller Strategy provides an excellent introduction to some powerful learning strategies. 

I hope that parents and teachers will  throw away the old worn-out spelling methods (“write it down 10 times”) and use the kinds of approaches contained in this online strategy instead.”

When you use the visual spelling strategy, you’re going to begin with just a couple of words to get your child comfortable with a new way of learning and remembering. 

Generally, kids who struggle with spelling don’t see the word in their mind like great spellers do, they just look down and know how they feel about it, using a kinesthetic learning style where they don’t make pictures that are easy to remember.

The full Spelling Success Strategy is in the online program, but you can jump start your child’s success by getting them to write their words on colored unlined note cards or construction paper strips, and then have them hold the words above eye level as they trace the letters with their hand.  Next, take the card away, and have your child look up above eye level and actually see the mental picture of the word.  It’s just like they are seeing a movie.

Brain research tells us that pictures are much faster and easier to remember for a written test, so when your child looks up above eye level, he or she will see the whole word in living color, and can easily write it correctly on the test.

One teacher, Cathy Heissler, owner of the Learning For Tomorrow Center, said, “The Super Speller Strategy changes my students’ lives.  All of my students went from failing to getting A’s and B’s.  Their self-esteem improves so much that they do better in all their other subjects too.”

Remember, kids learn in many styles, but schools tend to test in only one – the written visual style.  If you haven’t already read about how to bridge the gap between test taking success for students of all learning styles, there are more than 20, practical ‘how to” strategies in the book, Learning vs. Testing.  These strategies cover all subject areas and teach students “how to learn” and not just what to learn.

Remember, every child is smart!

Pat Wyman and Erin Mavredakis, M.D.

If you like this post and want to spread the word about helping kids be great spellers, post a comment, and click on the “share this button”.   You can send the post to all the social networking communities and more parents and teachers will see it.  Thank you.