Thoughts on Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic

All images of a black-clothed assassin aside, English is a language that doesn't play by its own rules. For example, take this sentence: Could you call me if you hear of any news?

Of the 10 words, six of them ignore common spelling rules. Words like "of", "you", "what", "could", "where", "are", and many others are used multiple times daily, yet they don't follow the phonics rules children are taught for years. Learning the spellings of these words requires more than simply sounding it out. It requires a skill called symbol imagery, or orthographic processing.

Orthographic processing is the ability to picture the letters of a word in your mind's eye. This is why you can check a word you've written based on whether or not it "looks right." Thus, when a word such as "of" comes around, you don't write "uv," then check it. You have a mental image of the word that tells you which letters are correct. This also aids reading fluency. If you see "what" on the page, you don't sound out "wuh-a-tuh." You know that the pronunciation of the word is "wut," even though it's not spelled that way.

Teaching these unfair words early on is a good way to ease a child's struggle with spelling. For some children, orthographic processing is so instinctive they are hardly aware of the mental step. For others, learning phonics rules is tricky, and unfair words make them mistrust following the rules at all.

ALP's approach to orthographic processing uses methods based on Seeing Stars^®*, developed by Nanci Bell, to develop the brain’s ability to image, hold, and retain letter symbols in words. This approach starts with the most basic pieces of words, individual letters, and systematically strengthens the student’s orthographic processing for reading and spelling single syllable words as well as complex multi-syllable words.

If your child is having trouble with spelling or reading familiar words, it could be a sign that they need some work on their orthographic processing. The earlier a problem is identified, the higher the likelihood that a child can successfully overcome it.

Rachel Phelps
Clinician