Spelling Games
for Dyslexic People
These spelling games show dyslexic people how to dissect words with their brains. Put them to the test, and see if they help your students to improve. They are very simple and give the learner a greater understanding of how the English language works.
Top 5 spelling games:
Game 1. Mnemonics:
Mnemonics are techniques that assist memory. Click here for mnemonics to help you remember how words are spelt.
- Ask your students to find or think of three words they have
difficulty spelling.
- Get them to create their own mnemonic for each word.
- The main idea is to make the memory aids as funny or as weird as possible. Basically make them memorable.
The point of the game is to get your students into the habit of creating mnemonics for new words they come across. If they do this with one new word a day their spelling will dramatically improve within a year.
Game 2. Simple words:
Try to find some simple words that are pronounced differently to the way they are spelt. Ask your students to say them outloud phonetically.
For example:
The word ‘one’ would be pronounced ‘oa-n’.
what = w-hat
two = t-wo
whether = w-he-ther
any = an-y
enough = en-ou-gh
This simple game will help them see that some words are spelt in a silly way. It will help them to see the imperfections of the English language.
It will also strengthen their understanding of how letters and sounds sometimes do not work together.
It also creates an audio back up mnemonic if they forget how to spell any of the words.
Game 3. Chunking:
This next spelling game is about taking long words and breaking them down into easy to remember pieces, for example:
com
mun
i
ca
tion
- Set this as a spelling list for your students to learn.
- Don’t tell them that the pieces make up a whole
word.
- Once they have successfully remembered the list get them to
join them all together.
- Hopefully they will be surprised that they have learnt how to spell a long word.
This should give them the confidence to start tackling longer and more difficult spellings. It also shows them that no matter how long a word is it can be broken down into manageable pieces.
Game 4. Find the sound:
Ask your students to choose a speech sound. Then their task is to find three words that represent the sound in different ways.
For example:
say
paid
break
The letters in bold show three different ways of representing the same sound.
Game 5. Word families:
Ask your students to find a group of words that are linked together in both the way they are spelt and by their meaning, for example:
Know, knew, known, knowledge
These are all from the same family of words, and therefore all start with a silent ‘K’.
This will help your students to remember how words are spelt
because they are part of a group and have a root meaning. Click here for more examples.
Conclusion:
I hope you have found these spelling games useful and fun. All five encourage dyslexic students to have confidence and to take a proactive approach towards improving their spelling ability.