• Use simple mnemonics, for example, for ‘said’ – Save Animals In Danger.

• Find words in words, eg ‘hat’ in ‘what’.

• Say the word as it is spelt, eg ‘fri-end’.
• Visualise (make a mental picture) of the word.

• Make words into pictures or cartoons.

• Focus in the tricky part of the word.

Give lots of practise by:

• Using rainbow writing – start writing over the word in one colour then repeat with different coloured pens, pencils, crayons, etc. Your child should say each letter name out loud as he/she writes it, and the whole word each time he/she completes the word.

• Making a spelling game:
  • Decide on six different methods to write the words: best handwriting, with left (or right) hand, using a special pen/pencil, in sand/flour, with eyes closed, on mum’s back, in small/large writing etc.
  • Assign a number to each method.
  • Your child rolls the die and spells the target word using the numbered method.
• Having fun writing in different media, like sand or flour.