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Show OUR- CHILDREN 88 By ANGELO PATRI SPELLING tpvERY term a certain number of children fall In spelling. Usually Usu-ally children have little difficulty with the subject so when the occasional oc-casional child falls, he gets little sympathy. "What? A low mark in spelling? Now, there's no excuse for that You get a high mark In arithmetic and that Is hard for anybody, but you get a low mark In spelling when all you have to do Is study. Now you go and get that book and I'll hear you spell every word In It" That Is exactly the way "NOT" to teach spelling. Spelling is a written writ-ten exercise. What we need spelling for Is to be able to write our communications so some one can read and understand under-stand them. That means we have to spell and write accurately. Most of us do. What's the matter with the few who don't? Sometimes it Is poor vision. Sometimes Some-times It is defective hearing. Sometimes Some-times It Is a lack of co-ordination between nervea and muscles that makes accurate writing difficult and poor spelling easy. Sometimes it Is a lack in the memory. You know we have different departments of memory, and if the department that deals with remembering symbols or sounds Is not functioning, we don't spell. Not ever. Usually the school psychologists can give the reason for the difficulty. Often It Is nothing more serious than the use of the wrong methods. You can't teach a child to spell accurately by dictating lists of words to liim and listening while he spells them aloud. He may spell every one of them correctly and the next day, when he has to write them in class, he gets them wrong 00 per cent. Let the slow speller write each word slowly and say each letter aloud as he makes it Let him write each word twice, no more. Give him a few words and let them be related re-lated either in sound or in content Then turn over the paper and dictate dic-tate them and let him write those missed Just once and repeat each letter aloud as he makes It If he doesn't improve In spelling by this method, take him to the eye man. If he can't find the trouble, go to the ear man. If he falls, try the psychologist Don't make him write words more than three times. Twice Is plenty. Don't ask him to spell orally and expect him to write correctly. |