Kids at the age of 2 to 3 start speaking and picking up words from parents and the people around them. They learn new words and gradually enhance their language skills over a period of time. Kids learn to listen, speak, read and write words to improve their communication skills. Apart from speaking and reading, kids need to upgrade their writing skills. To develop that, kids must be familiar with the spelling of words they write. They should be able to spell the words correctly to make meaningful conversations.
However, kids must know how to spell the words to develop their spelling skills. Sometimes, little ones get confused about words that sound or look similar. It might even create confusion when the spelling of the words looks different, and the meaning remains the same. In such cases, kids find it difficult to frame meaningful sentences using appropriate words. Therefore, kids must know spelling rules for an effective writing experience. Understanding these rules helps them write correct words for clear communication.
Though your children are familiar with grammar and rules of spelling to spell the words correctly, it requires continuous practice to use them in the sentence to make it meaningful. Therefore, kids need to become aware of the rules to learn the spelling of words. Kids must recognize silent letters, vowels, consonants, blended letters, digraphs, trigraphs, plurals, etc. Understanding the basic rules of spelling helps children develop vocabulary and writing skills. Most importantly, it improves their performance in academics. You need to teach kids the rules of spelling to become better writers and a person who is extremely good with their communication skills.
Simple Rules to Enhance Spelling Skills of Children
Writing is one of the communication skills that each and every child must attain mastery to express themselves properly with others. Learning how to spell words correctly helps kids express their ideas and thoughts clearly with others without creating any misunderstandings or miscommunication. However, let us find out the simple rules to learn the spelling of the words for the children mentioned below.
- Letter U follows the letter Q: You need to teach kids that the following letter of the words that start with the letter Q is always the letter U. For example, Queen, Quiet, Quantity, Quality, Query, etc. You might see exceptions as there is no hard and fast rule that every word has the same sequence, but there are a few words that might not have been used commonly.
- Suffixes to words ending with the letter Y: In this rule, kids need to learn to add suffixes, such as er, ed and est, at the end of the words ending with the letter Y. For example, baby – babies, family- families, fry – fried, fly – fried, simply- simplest, etc.
- Prefix al sounds as all: Kids must know for the fact that adding the prefix “al” to the words sounds like “all”. For example, always, alone, altogether, alright, etc.
- Letter S at the end of the words: In this rule, the letter S is added at the end of the words to make them plural, which is something more than one. For example, bushes, bats, cats, dogs, pens, pencils, etc.
- Letter FSZL at the end of words: In this rule, the letters F, S, Z, and L are added and multiplied at the end of the words. For example, mass, stuff, hell, buzz, etc. There are also exceptions where you find only single letters of FSZL, such as bus and quiz.
- Capitalization of letters: In this rule, kids need to learn the capitalization of the first letter of the words for places and names, for example, Harry, Pamela, California, Seattle, etc.
- Letter G sounds as /j/ or /g/: The spelling of the words also depends on how you pronounce them and the way it sounds. Words with the letter G before E, I, or Y sound like /j/, for example, gym, giant, giant, etc. However, there are words that sound /g/, like glad, grass, grumpy, garden, etc.
Benefits of Learning Spellings for Children
Learning how to spell the words correctly enables children to enhance their reading and writing skills. They learn to differentiate between words and their meanings for effective communication. You can help your child learn how to connect letters of the alphabet and their sounds correctly. This helps them enhance kids’ learning experience for better learning outcomes. The benefits of learning rules of spelling for children are mentioned below.
- It develops vocabulary and language skills in children.
- It enables children to spell the words correctly.
- It improves children’s reading and writing skills.
- It helps children make meaningful communication with others.
- It increases grammatical knowledge for better learning outcomes.
- It boosts children’s confidence to express themselves clearly without any hesitation.
- It improves children’s academic performance and helps them score well in all subjects.