This activity has five levels. The challenge is to unscramble the words. A struggling speller requires more practice. Prepare jumbled word exercises using common words and words used in textbooks.
Tips for parents:
- We strongly recommend buying a whiteboard and using marker pens of different colours.
- Does your child find it difficult to spell words? Does she/he make many spelling mistakes? Does your child lose marks because of wrong spelling?
Some children struggle to spell words. Your child may have difficulty in spelling words used in the text books. Teach the child spelling of the words and then to strengthen her/his learning, jumble the letters and write on the board. Pronounce the word and ask your child to write the word. Observe your child and note the difficulty your child is experiencing. Find out where the child is going wrong. Take remedial measures.
- Find out whether your child has issues with hearing sounds
This activity is useful to find out whether your child can hear the sounds of letters. Observe your child while she/he does this activity. Can your child hear each letter of the word clearly? The difficulty in processing sound may be behind your child’s inability to spell words. To know more, go to Home Page and refer to Auditory Processing Disorder.
- How to prepare jumbled worksheets for learning spelling in text books?
Writing the words several times to learn spelling is not a good method for a child struggling with spelling. You can teach spelling to your child in many ways.
One effective method to teach spelling is to use jumbled words. How to make jumbled spelling activities? In a note book, make 9 boxes on a page. Then take another page and make 9 similar boxes. Give numbers 1 to 9 to each box. On one page write the jumbled words. On the other page, write
the words that are jumbled. Note both the jumbled word and the word would have the same number. This is to easily identify the jumbled word.
Jumbled words Page one – to be used by the child
1
kdemraer
2
tropprey
3
gtersire
4
inurfhs
5
rhttu
6
llizya
7
kttaca
8
nrabhc
9
lppsyu
Jumbled words unscrambled Page one – for the reference of the parent
1
remarked
2
property
3
register
4
furnish
5
truth
6
lazily
7
attack
8
branch
9
supply
How to use the lists? Let us assume you want to teach the spelling of ‘remarked’ to your child. Keep the list of words with you and give the list of jumbled versions of the words to your child. Read out the word remarked (number 1) from your list and direct your child to refer to number 1 and ask her/him to form the word using all the letters in number 1.
The child has to rearrange the letters, kdemraer to make remarked. A child who struggles with spelling may not be able to get the answer right.
If your child is not able to spell ‘remarked’ correctly in this exercise, ask her/him to say the word, remarked, slowly several times stretching the sound of the letters in the word. You can also read the word aloud slowly. Ask, “Which is the first sound you hear?” It is also useful to ask, “Which is the last sound you hear?” Go on asking questions on sounds in this word, remarked. Another question can be “Which sound do you hear after m?”
Some students struggle with spelling because they are unable to match the sounds in the word with the corresponding letters. Regular practice is necessary.
You have to be extremely patient. Patience will come if you understand the difficulty your child is facing while writing or reading. The problem is we don’t really understand our children.
- Explore other ways to teach your child to spell better. Go to the homepage and refer under Dysgraphia. Useful tips for improving spelling are given in these paragraphs- sky writing, vertical surface writing, kinaesthetic –tactile learning, and writing activities.