Spelling Stress

I've just been speaking to my son about the words he finds most difficult to spell. He turned 10 in January, reads willingly and has undergone a fairly intensive spelling programme at his school over the past three years.

In his opinion, two of the words he finds most difficult to spell are exaggerate and apparatus. For the former, he said he adds an extra "z" into the early part to make it "exzaggerate" and, because the vowels all sound different in the latter, he has tried variations of "apperatis", substituting vowels at random. Unless my son had explained all this to me, I would have assumed his misspellings were the results of doubling other consonants in each word, as in "exaggerrate"and "apparratus".

I find it interesting that spelling certain words will be difficult for one person, but relatively straightforward for another. Further, it is quite fascinating to hear the logic behind a person's choice for spelling a word in a certain way, and, I might add, often quite instructive, if not correct. I am sure everyone possesses their own particular spelling challenge, and the old adage, practise makes perfect, is likely to be the best remedy. My strongest advice is that a dictionary is indispensable (or is that indispensible?). Keep one within arm's reach and use it with abandon.

Lastly, don't rely on computer spell checks, as, without the definition, how do you know whether you've got the word you really want? A case in point - the spelling conundrums outlined earlier come from the same boy who can spell "viscosity", but thinks it means "to have visitors coming to one's house".

I'd be interested to hear about your personal spelling challenge...

http://www.wordwriteforsuccess.com.au/