Teaching Spelling

In my previous blog, I mentioned a 4-year-old non-verbal CWA in the neighborhood who was pulling his dad to look at the television which at that time was in the patio of my friend's house and she has friends singing through the karaoke system. As I observed him, I can see that he was reading the words coming out in the screen. I was able to talk to the mom of this kid a few days ago and I told her what I observed.


I suggested she starts teaching her son how to spell, that is if he still doesn't know how to(I have a strong feeling he knows and that he can read).I told her I have the feeling he knows how but she has to teach him to bring it out(the knowledge)...this is the area most difficult to bring out from CWA, the communication skills. I instructed her to get a magnetic board and letters and start introducing the letters and teach him spelling.


I used this technique with an 8-year-old CWA who is also non-verbal. And it worked out. He can spell his name and anything I ask him to spell. Gets angry when his caregiver helps him by giving letters when he is taking the time to put letters on board. I asked the caregiver to let him be the one to do it. And explained he needs time to think. This is the time when he can already spell without prompting.


First I introduced the letters (phonetics) thru picture cards.Letters with pictures of things that he knows as the introduction to the Alphabet. Then when he already knew all the letters, I started introducing 3 letter words (sight words) with pictures. After some time, I removed the pictures and asked him to spell without pictures. And he was able to do this. In the coming days, I will be asking feedbacks from the mom to know if the method was effective or if he was able to spell thru the magnetic board. This can be useful if this boy will not be talking. It can be used as a way to communicate.