"What does thinking have to do with spelling?"
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.
What does all of this have to do with spelling?
Some spelling rules connect the meaning of words to the way we spell the word. Word meaning and sound-to-letter rules drive word spelling in approximately 80% - 85% of words in the English language. When we follow the rules, we correctly spell words without having to memorize the spelling of every word we write.
For example, when we hear certain sounds within a word, then we know which letter patterns to use with that sound.
Consider the following:
IF we hear a short vowel sound AND the last sound in the word is /k/, THEN we know the letter pattern for /k/ will be "-ck." We also know there will NOT be an "e" at the end of the word. Is that absolute? No, but even the exception has a rule. We can also say, "UNLESS an /n/ or /r/ sound comes right before the /k/." ['think,' 'blank,' 'thank,' 'bark,' 'perk,' etc.]
To provide background, let's look at some kinds of "thinking."
When we use critical thinking we judge ideas and opinions that pass through our senses. We use deductive and inductive reasoning to draw conclusions.
Deductive Reasoning:
Mom tells Johnny, "You can have one cookie after supper if you eat all your carrots and peas." Johnny ate a cookie after supper. Can you conclude what else Johnny did?
ASSUMING that Mom meant what she said AND that Johnny obeyed his mom, we can apply deductive thinking to conclude that "Johnny ate all of his carrots and peas."
Abductive Reasoning:
When we use "abductive reasoning," we generalize to draw a conclusion less on facts and more on likelihood. Abductive reasoning is not as reliable. We make educated guesses based on the information we have that allow us to 'generally' arrive at a likely accurate conclusion, which could still be inaccurate.
Consider the following scene:
Mom walks into the living room, and pieces of broken glass are scattered everywhere next to a side table. The lamp is missing from the table. Johnny appears from the kitchen holding a trash can and broom.
Using abductive reasoning, we conclude that Johnny broke the lamp.
Could our conclusion be wrong? Yes, if there are other ways the lamp could be broken [Perhaps a sibling or pet knocked the lamp over]. Is it likely that Johnny broke the lamp? Yes, but we can only generalize our conclusion to infer what likely happened.
When we apply phonic rules for spelling, the rules generalize certain known cause-and-effect correlations between sounds and letter patterns.
Using Our Senses WITH the Rules
Before we can apply phonic rules for spelling, we must first be able to hear the sounds in the words. This critical key requires the brain to 'process' the sounds. [See blog '8 Reasons Spelling Can be Difficult]. By 'process,' I mean that the brain must recognize that words are made of sounds AND the brain has to tell the differences between one sound and another.
Telling sounds apart seems easy on the surface, but it is challenging for many people. Sounds overlap each other. To infants, speech sounds more like a melody with words running together. This is like hearing a foreign language. The words flow quickly to the listener who does not know the language, and distinguishing one word from another is nearly impossible.
As infants become toddlers and their familiarity with language increases, their brains adapt and begin to hear individual words. Soon, they are 'processing' the syllables and word endings [He pulls, You pull, He pulled, etc.]. By the time children enter school, they are learning, or have already learned, to process each sound in a word and to recognize that letters represent those sounds when words are written.
Many sounds are so close in pitch or frequency that the sounds seem to be the same! For example, many often hear short /i/ and /e/as the same sound, especially when embedded within a word. For others, the nasal sounds [/m/ and /n/] sound similar when paired with /p/ [-mp], virtually indistinguishable by the brain. Voiced and voiceless sounds also present difficulties for others, so the /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, /s/ and /z/, /sh/, /ch/ and /j as in 'judge'/ phonemes all sound the same.
The brain unconsciously catalogs sounds as the same or different. Speech therapists refer to the ability to 'hear' phonemes as same or different as 'discrimination' skills.
The brain associates sounds with the visual letter or 'picture' we use for sounds in words.
Our brain must map [requires thinking] those sounds to letters and letter patterns [For example, there are several ways to spell the long /i/ sound. [i_e, -ie-, -y at the end of a one-syllable word and in the -fy ending, -igh- ].
To apply phonics, we need to know which rules apply to specific sounds [For example, the -ck letter pattern only follows short vowels] -- AND be able to recall this information from our long-term memory.
More than one letter pattern might be used to spell some words. When word spelling does not follow the rules, we need to use our visual memory from times when we saw the words before. When words do not follow expected letter patterns the mind notices exceptions to the rules or sounds [Example boat and not 'bote' | 'bus' and not 'buss' | etc.] Often the exceptions relate to word meanings. For example 'hare' [an animal, rabbit] and 'hair' [what covers our head]. Other examples include 'where' and 'wear', 'here' and 'hear', 'led' and 'lead', etc.
Since spelling is the communication of thought through written words, we need to know the meanings of words with more than one possible spelling to correctly select the spelling that matches the meaning we wish to convey [their, they're, there].
Returning to the game analogy and the title of the blog:
"Yes, if people know how to spell, they must know the game rules and use thought to apply the rules to the words they write. People who can spell, can think."
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