cat, cut, cub, cob, rob, rub, sub, tub, tab, tap, top, etc.

1.You may not be able to tell the difference between short vowel tones, so matching the correct vowel letter or letters to the correct vowel tone is difficult without memorizing word spelling.You may not distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonant sounds, which may cause you to confuse the sounds of */p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, /k/ and /g/, /sh/ and /ch/, /th/ as in think and /th/ as in /that/, and/or /s/ and /z/. *[/ / indicates a sound, ' ' indicates a letter.]2. You may confuse sounds that sound similar but are produced in slightly different areas of the mouth. For example, /r/ and /l/ are both ‘liquid’ sounds that sound alike to some people, but are formed in two different areas of the mouth. /f/ and /th/ have only a slight difference in that the /f/ is produced with the teeth and lips and the /th/ is produced with the tongue between the teeth.3. You do not process all the sounds in words, or you struggle to correctly sequence the sounds as you write. People who have this problem leave sounds out in blends. Blends are two consonants side by side [st, sm, sn, pr, pl , fl, at the beginning or -rn, -rt, -mp, -ps, etc. on the end.]Therefore, ‘string’ might be spelled or spoken as ‘sting’ or ‘sing’ and ‘turn’ might be spelled as ‘trun.’4. You may not have learned the phonic rules for spelling.and how phonic rules are related to the vowel tones within words. With this problem you might spell ‘catch’ as ‘cach' or 'teach' as 'tetche.’ Many spelling patterns are based on vowel sounds and phonic rules.5. You have not learned how to spell common prefixes and suffixes. The -tion ending is an example that people confuse because the letters 'ti' would be spoken as /ti/ [as in /tip/, but in the suffix the letters 'ti' are spoken /sh/. If you do not know this, you might spell a word like ‘emotion’ as ‘emoshun.’6. You may not know the meanings and differences between words that sound the same but are spelled slightly different. Examples of these are ‘to’ ‘too’ and ‘two’ or ‘there’ ‘their’ and ‘they’re.’ Using simple mnemonic devices may help with this.Example: I went TO school with TWO lunches which was TOO much to eat!I went THERE and found out I was THEIR heir and now THEY’RE giving me all THEIR things!7. Your visual memory for words with multiple possibilities for vowel spellings may be weak. For example, the long /a/ phoneme may be spelled as ‘a_e’ as in ate or ‘-ay ‘as in play, or ‘eigh’ as in eight, ‘ai’ as in train, or ‘ey’ as in they. While one can predict to some degree what the possible spelling pattern might be based upon location of the sound within the word, we still need to have repeated exposure to words with two or more possible spellings to create a mental image of how the word should ‘look.’ If visual memory is weak, then you may have trouble spelling words having more thane one way to spell the vowel tone.That said, if you can at least write one of the vowel spellings, auto correct in your computer will catch the word you wish to write and suggest the correct spelling, that is if the word that you spelled is not another real word.For example, hare and hair are both real words with quite different meanings. Spell check will not likely catch this spelling error.8. Lastly, you may not process the unaccented syllable in multiple syllable words, either auditorily or visually. One must process the ‘schwa’ phoneme of the unaccented syllable AND recall which vowel letter is used for the unaccented syllable in multiple syllable words. Again, if you can represent all the sounds in a multiple syllable word with at least a letter [correct or not] and spell the sounds within the accented syllables and suffixes correctly, the auto correct and spell check features on your computer should get you to the correct spelling of the word.

When we play games, there are rules. IF we understand the rules, THEN we can play the game correctly. WHEN we do not follow the rules, THEN we do not win OR lose the game. Instead, we simply play  until the players tire of the game.  Rules establish the way we play and how to know when we are finished.  Rules help us know who wins and who loses.  When the rules are not followed, who wins the game?  Let's take a game of baseball, for example.  If one team gets to play until they make a run, regardless of how many times they strike out; then can they be called the "winner" of the game after 3 innings?  After all, there should be 9 innings and each team gets the same number of 'outs' and 'strikes' in a legitimate game of baseball.  We could say they played baseball, but we could not say anyone won the game because they did not actually play a 'game' of baseball.  In order to follow the rules, we must think about the rules of the game and how we are playing the game.

Sierra was a typical, struggling 3rd-grade reader. She was reading at a late first-grade reading level in the middle of 3rd grade. She did not have a diagnosis of dyslexia or a history of speech or language problems. She loved to write stories. Her sentences were good, but her spelling was poor. She struggled to write many words because she could not spell them. So, she tried only to write words she could spell, which limited her word choices when writing. Anyone reading her stories found it hard to read some of her writing. She avoided homework with her parents. [wait…can I do it later?...you’re not doing it right [to her parent] …. why…I already did it...I don’t have to do it…I forgot…] By the time we met, Sierra was in the second semester of third grade. The year before, an intervention specialist started helping her in the regular education classroom with an Individual Education Plan, and she was making progress slowly. BUT she was still reading at the first-grade level, 2 years below grade level.Sierra started working with the author of "Reading Sound Strategies" in late January, but wasn’t consistently working until mid-February. Before we started, her parents gave me her mid-December report card. The report card said:• “Reading 2nd-grade level text to 38 words per minute on ¾ trials. She read mid-first grade text (Level H) to 26 words per minute.• Answering questions about 1st-grade level text with 70% accuracy on ¾ trials by December of 3rd grade: She answered questions for beginning 2nd-grade level text [Level K] with 70% accuracy.In June, her report card stated: • “Reading beginning 3rd grade level text at 42 words per minute with 96% accuracy and 90% comprehension.”Her 3rd grade MAP reading scores were reported as follows:• She began the school year at 191. MAP projected she would finish at 194.• She finished the school year at 204, exceeding her fall projected score by 10 points. She read the text at the beginning of 3rd-grade level, Fountas and Pinnell Level N, indicating an increase from level H to level N between December and May. What happened between February and May?Sierra began learning to blend, separate, match, compare, sequence, delete, and insert sounds in words. She learned to read and spell using the methods found in the books “20 Minute Phonemic Training for Dyslexia, Auditory Processing and Spelling” and “Reading Sound Strategies.” Our goal was to meet for 40 minutes twice weekly. She met with the author 27 times through internet sessions in January through May, plus two times in her home for a total of 28 sessions. In addition, her mother was present at each session and provided a repeated reading practice session about once a week. However, as with any family, the activities of life intervened, and the repeated reading lessons were sporadic.On February 3, the author met with Sierra and her mother for 90 minutes at home. Video clips of Sierra's reading show the change in her fluency between February and May. pre-lesson reading sample: https://youtu.be/2oJxthJ86F4post-lesson reading sample: https://youtu.be/iEDuiaMuO-Q