Hello Lynne,

I'm not exactly an authority on the matter, however, I went through the same thing myself. I was the son of a teacher, and in the first and second grade my teachers and parents tried everything to get me to learn how to spell and read well. I was also into science at that age, particularly anything to do with space (I went on to get a degree in physics). But in the first and second grade I could not spell correctly if my life depended on it. In the end they decided that spelling just wasn't my thing, and stopped forcing me to do extra work in that area. I'm sorry to say that I am still a poor speller, (god bless spell checkers!) but I am okay with that. My parents bought me various pocket sized spell checkers and dictionaries which helped a lot. It wasn't that I was stupid or slow at all, just that spelling didn't (and doesn't) make sense to me- the rules are far to inconsistent. I'm not suggesting that spelling is not important, or that your son will never learn it, just that if he doesn't then it's not the end of the world.

As for reading, that picked up greatly once I found books that actually interested me (the first book that I really read by myself was called 'the enormous egg' about a boy who hatches a dinosaur) . The books for people learning were just too boring to keep my concentration (a bit like reading Dean Koontz).

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

-graham

My child is having the same problem . I have dyslexia and i think she does to. have you looked into that? they have never told me to put her on anything but i know add and adhd go hand and hand with dyslexia. i spend so much time helping her and i just get frustrated and can't do it any more it is not her fault and i don't want to get mad at her. also remember kids go at their own pace and they will get it . it may not be at this moment but it will come every child learns to read and spell when they are ready i think schools want so many people to be doing and acting and learning at the same time that they forget we are all different . it will come tell the school you want your child to get extra help maybe they have a teacher that works with a small group of children . they are responible to help your child. find out what the schools responsiblitys are and ask for testing . my child got pulled out three times a week to work with a small group and she was understanding things at a fast pace. set up a meeting and get working. i had to fight with them but all and all it worked for my child

Hi, my granddaughter is also in the 1st grade.... I have her write all the words she doesn't know 10 times. She fought this at first, but found out how well it works. I will ask her to spell the words at different times before the test on Friday to see if she needs more help. So far she has gotten all the words right. Hope this is helpful.

when i was younger i was really bad with spelling and reading i could read but not make since of a whole story i had a very hard time in school i hated not being able to spell and spending countless hours cryn/studying  so much i cheated on every spelling test. i can take apart just about anything and put it back together... i am also left handed your son may also be a late bloomer such as myself. he may just need more time but the school system is based on age and grade not speed of ones ability to learn that is the biggest flaw imo. cause if you get held back it devastating for a kid and they get made fun of.. it tends to make them anti-social

u can try using magnet letters something he can touch and see try letters with random colors or all the same, writing in sand and giving him time

My 4th grader still struggles with spelling.  It's a constant uphill climb for him.  I've found that simply writing the words doesn't work for him.  First, I break the list down into focus words for each day (I usually do the harder ones first so he has more time to work on them) and then make worksheets for him, with activities like putting the words into sentences or picking the one that is spelled right.  You can handwrite sheets or find spelling sheet generators online.  There are free and $ sites to do that.  spellingcity.com is free and it has a variety of spelling activities.  You can add your own list.  My kids' teachers put their lists on the site so the whole class has it available to them.  My kids usually do their self-testing on the site.   I'm sure that @ 6, his spelling words are pretty short, but I try breaking down my son's words into syllables to help his brain organize the words.  I like to group words together when they follow a similar rule (like "silent e" or "ue" or things like that)  Another thing I do is give him an exaggerated phonetic pronunciation of the word to help him work through some trickier words.  I think what's most important is to give him a variety of ways to learn the words so you can figure out how he learns best.  He may need to spell them out loud, or act out the letters or do a chant/cheer of them, do word puzzles or just read them over and over.  Spelling winds up being a lot more work for me than for them, but when they do well its worth it.  You could ask the teacher to give you the list earlier so he has a few more days to work on it.  My final secret weapon is the bribe.  My kids get $1 each week they get all their spelling words right.  My oldest, when he was in 2nd grade (when they start spelling in our school dist.), went from +5/9 to +9/9 with that simple motivation.  :)

My daughter experienced the same thing.  We requested that she be tested by the school psychologist; just to rule out any learning disability.  She tested great.  We were encouraged to hold her back, and so she did repeat 1st grade.  I do not believe that this really did her any good.  We just kept encouraging the reading, and finally around 8-9 years old she started reading and hasn't stopped!  However this still did not help her spelling.  Now she is in 8th grade, she never puts books down, and she is president of the national junior honor society.  She was tested in English last week and she tested at a 12th grade level...except for spelling.  Her spelling is at a 3rd grade level.  Still we have no answers and neither does the school.  It is very frustrating I know, but don't give up!

Spelling in English is challenging in that there are many rules and exceptions to the rule - which and witch / neighbor, pray, prey, pale and pail they all have the "ay" sound. However, when you start with spelling, you teach them rhyming - cat, bat, fat / hen, pen, ten / hug, rug, tug.  Then when you get to the sight words and if you look correctly, the Dolch list has 100 words that are commonly used when reading.  These however, can only be mastered by repetition and more repetition.  A good way for him to learn to know these words is to give him a list of 5 - 10 words to look up in magazines so that he becomes familiar with the different fonts in which they are written.  Remember that single sounds first - a, b, c, and then double sounds br, fl, ou, ow.  I found teaching letter sounds rather than names are better for learning words and spelling them.  Saying bee (B) ay (A) tee (T) spells bat yes but it is way better when you say b (b) - a (as in ant) - t ( as in tent) really sounds like bat.  
Hope you found this useful.

Teaching spelling in school is usually done by having a student copy the words over and over again, which of course does not work at all.  By copying the words, their spelling never leaves the student's Blackboard Memory, so the brain does its job well and dutifully helps the student forget the spelling.  The goal, then, is to place the spelling of the word in the student's short-term memory, so it's "picture" can be retrieved.  

Here is a simple technique that you can do at home to help your child succeed in spelling:

1.  Have your child write the spelling word on a piece of paper, then trace the letters with his or her index finger while saying the spelling word out loud.  Have the child say the word normally while tracing it, not say or sound out individual letters or vowels.

2.  Take the paper away and wait a minimum of 30 seconds (e.g. sing the "Jeopardy!" theme or some other song).

3.  Give your child a blank paper, saying, "Now, write the word you traced."  

4.  If your child spells the word incorrectly - which is likely to occur at the beginning of this technique - go back and repeat steps 1-3.

Once your child has established a pathway to the short-term memory of a word's spelling, it's THERE!  The brain has no way of knowing if that pathway was established 31 seconds ago, one week ago, or one month ago.  And since the pathway is there, your child WILL remember the spelling of the word.

If you would like to read more information on Successful Spelling Techniques - click on the link below.

Good Luck to you!

Spelling is a tough one.  Build a bank of games you can play with your child to practice their spelling at home:
have a BANG box (all words students are working on go in the box on slips of paper, take turns pulling words out.  If you can read it, put it down, and spell it without looking, you get to keep it. If you don't, you put it back.  There are also BANG cards in the box.  If you pull a bang card, you have to put back all the cards you collected).  Play until someone reaches 10 or a designated amount of time.  In my classroom, I created a free account at www.spellingcity.com.  You can create lists of spelling words, it will allow you to make worksheets, or use the words in your list to play practice games online.  Great site.  Kids love it.

i have the same problem with my son (age 11) in spelling and the same with me and my mom and sister struggle with spelling to. my teacher always asked me why is it that you can read so well but you can't spell, i never thought and wondered why i struggle until my son started grade 2. he has bad spelling to but i've notice when he spell he doesn't put in the letters that he can hear you know "THE SILENT" letters and i also notice that when i grew up you were taught to sound out the letters to get your word, WELL that don't work to much either cause half/most letters don't even sound like it's self ( like the letter c) c sounds like the letter k or s so it gets a little confussing to him. i feel sad all the time cause i don't think hes going to grade 5 hes already been held back a grade in grade 2, He does do very well in school but he stuggles on get everything writen down fast enough i think its do to his spelling cause he has to stop to look at the word a bunch of times, so thank god the teacher aid helps him a lot but he can't keep depending on them. i wish i know more about how to help my son he can't keep getting held back each grade.