Why your kid cant rely on tech tools to spell

If you know where to look online, you'll find concerned whispers about the ability of America's schoolchildren to spell. 

One teacher-creator on TikTok who goes by the handle @oopsdaaliya recently posted about her first-grade students' alarming spelling test results. On a 10-item quiz of high-frequency words (think the, with, has), most of her students struggled. Sometimes they wrote only a single letter or left the blank space completely empty. The video has been viewed 1.3 million times. 

"This is my reality," she said in the video. "I really don't know what to do." 

Elsewhere, in a subreddit for teachers, a parent recently shared a post entitled, "5th grade kids can't spell, why?". The question elicited dozens of passionate responses from current and retired educators. The spelling crisis in their classrooms, many of them argued, could be traced back to a theory known as “whole language,” which rejected science-based literacy, including spelling instruction, in favor of since-discredited reading and comprehension strategies. 

"[N]ow we have a generation of struggling students," wrote one commenter. 

While the anecdotes are troubling, data is hard to find. There is no annual national spelling assessment, and states generally don't explicitly test spelling, so it's difficult to know the extent of the problem. 

Still, top literacy experts interviewed by Mashable agree the whole language approach marked the beginning of depriving countless students of formal spelling instruction for decades. Other educational policies that overlooked the crucial role spelling plays in reading and writing also didn't help. Even though many schools have pivoted back to science-based literacy approaches, specifically phonics, spelling often remains an afterthought. 

These experts also have a warning for parents and educators who dismiss spelling as an obsolete skill, given the widespread availability of error-correcting digital technologies and products like spellcheck, autocorrect, Google Docs, Grammarly, and ChatGPT. Relying on these tools without becoming a proficient speller can put students at a lifelong disadvantage, they say. 

That's because learning to spell correctly from the beginning gives students the "underlying linguistic knowledge" they need to read, write, and communicate effectively, says Dr. Brennan Chandler, a professor at Georgia State University who researches literacy and dyslexia. 

"Spelling really has quietly eroded," Chandler adds, "even as evidence mounted that spelling is really a driver of reading development and not this optional add-on." 

"Everybody really wants this"

Parents coming to terms with the role spelling plays in the literacy crisis shouldn't blame themselves or teachers, Chandler says. 

He tutors students with dyslexia and conducts research in classrooms. He hears from both parents and teachers that they desperately want students to learn to spell correctly. 

"This is where I get frustrated, see, because everybody really wants this, but we're still neglecting it," says Chandler, who's developing a teaching curriculum for spelling. (Chandler also serves on the advisory board for the literacy education company Amplify.) 

Parents feel ill-equipped to tutor spelling at home for obvious reasons, like time and patience. There are also relatively few trustworthy home learning products available, compared to those for subjects like math and English. 

Plus, students and their parents may resist the hard work required to spell proficiently, given the availability of error-correction technology. But those tools, Chandler says, "mask student difficulties and further normalize a decline of explicit spelling instruction."

Meanwhile, because literacy curricula abandoned formal spelling instruction for nearly three decades, teachers stopped learning how to teach the subject. Nor are they routinely provided the resources they need for explicit spelling instruction. 

Educators may do their best with word lists and weekly quizzes, but instruction is often haphazard if they don't have access to a formal spelling curriculum, says Dr. Richard Gentry, an education researcher and co-author of Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching. 

In the classroom, Gentry recommends 20 minutes of daily classroom spelling instruction. To be effective, the material should cover specific spelling rules, phonics patterns, and foundational vocabulary appropriate for each grade level. 

"This kind of instruction using a curriculum leads to long-term mastery as opposed to simply memorizing words in short-term memory for a test or reliance on digital devices without teacher guidance," says Gentry. 

When to worry about your child's spelling

Parents should begin paying close attention to their child's spelling in kindergarten. Toward the end of first grade, students are typically expected to develop more sophisticated spelling knowledge. At that point, students may not be able to spell more complex words correctly, but they should be able to use logical syllable patterns accurately (think e-g-u-l for eagle). 

If they struggle with letter recognition and phonic sounds during kindergarten, it's important to begin shoring up that foundational knowledge as soon as possible. 

Consistently poor spelling can indicate that a child has dyslexia or another related learning challenge. If that's masked by technology or limited instruction and testing in school, it may take years to discover the root cause. 

Gentry says parents should continue monitoring their child's spelling proficiency — and the school's curriculum for the subject matter — throughout elementary school. 

What kids learn when they learn to spell

Deanna Fogarty, vice president and head of reading science at the literacy curriculum company Wilson Language Training, says parents shouldn't assume spelling isn't being taught if their child isn't becoming proficient in the skill. 

Instead, educators may be focusing on memorization without teaching the rules of spelling. Or spelling may be part of a student's English Language Arts curriculum, but not delivered using science-based principles. 

Additionally, in the English language, there are over 1,100 ways to spell 44 sounds, Fogarty says. That's why memorization tactics alone fail students. 

They need to know, for instance, that c represents /s/ when placed before e, i, and y, and that c represents /k/ before the vowels a, o, and u, among other instances. Knowing these rules helps students understand spelling in a way that memorization doesn't. (For a crash course in these conventions, Chandler recommends the slim book Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy.)

Fogarty, who previously tutored dyslexic children, says students often express relief when they realize that standardized rules govern the English language. They often labor under the impression that English spelling is too difficult and unpredictable to master.

Chandler says that as kids feel more competent in spelling, their motivation to improve grows. As they become proficient, Chandler says they can use tools like autocorrect and ChatGPT to strategically check or finesse their work. But relying on them from the beginning may prevent students from developing critical reading and writing skills. 

He notes that the ability to write fluently and with ease, which requires accurate spelling, may very well influence their life's direction. 

'When you teach students to write, we're not just preparing them to pass an exam or perhaps an essay," Chander says. "We're teaching them to reason, argue, to clarify their thoughts, to communicate their ideas, to advocate for themselves."