Using Multi-Sensory Spelling Activities on a Second Grade Student with Symptoms of Dyslexia

Belen Gamboa Loyola Marymount University December 8, 2012

I. Introduction Writing is a fundamental skill that for many students, with guidance, is an attainable skill. However, students who have difficulty in this area oftentimes have trouble with spelling basic words that will lead them in constructing meaningful sentences. Spelling words in the primary grades follow spelling patterns that assist children so they will be able to memorize a given list of words and apply spelling patterns to other words. When a student is successful in retaining a given pattern in words, they tend to write more substantial sentences. John is seven year old second grade student. He is demonstrating high performance in mathematics, however he is not at grade level in reading and writing. John receives Title 1 services in reading three days a week for thirty minutes. Students in second grade are given weekly spelling lists that consist of ten words and a spelling test is given at the end of the week to assess them. Since the beginning of the year, John has displayed difficulty in memorizing the spelling lists and applying the spelling patterns in his writing. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of implementing research based spelling strategies on a focus student who displays difficulty in memorizing spelling patterns, thus displaying symptoms of dyslexia. This research aims to answer the following question: What impact will these spelling strategies have on his

performance on the weekly spelling tests?

II. Literature Review Reading, writing, and oral expression are fundamentals of literacy. In the primary grades, many children have difficulty with an aspect of reading or writing. These children overcome these challenges by becoming more phonologically aware of the various sounds and spelling patterns in the English language. There are some children, however, who do not make significant progress with reading and writing. They might perform well in other academic areas even though they have poor literacy skills. Developmental dyslexia is when someone has a specific disability with reading and spelling. Therefore, they have a difficulty in, phonological awareness tasks. (Cassar et al. p. 28) Montgomery further notes that, The majority of dyslexics will have a spelling difficulty which is as severe as the reading problem if not more so. (Montgomery p.19) Students are taught spelling patterns and those who have difficulty reading cannot see those patterns as they are reading, therefore, those skills are not being developed. Spelling, requires the recall of spellings from memory in exactly the correct order or the construction of such spellings if they are already not stored in the word memory or lexicon. (Montgomery p. 7) Children with dyslexia tend to have a difficult time memorizing

the correct order of letters when placed in a word. Therefore, it [is] hard for them to learn links between letters and phonemes and use these links to read and spell (Cassar et al. p. 28). In her book, Teaching Reading and Spelling to Dyslexic Children: Getting to Grips with Words, Walton argues that, dyslexic children can be taught to read and spell most words if they receive systematic instruction in the sounds made by individual letters and combination of letters, using a multi-sensory approach. Using the suggestions, from the Pre-Referral Intervention Manual, I will use multi-sensory strategies to note whether or not my student has made significant progress in spelling and his phonological awareness. III. Cycle 1- Baseline Data The assessments that were collected prior to the interventions are shown on the following table in figure1. Spelling tests are given on Fridays and a practice spelling test is given the day prior. The assessments placed him at 48% , which his spelling grade reflected poor. On Monday, Students are given their spelling words and have daily homework assignments with those words. During language lab, which is twice a week, students log on to spellingcity.com to help them master their spelling words. Students can select from various games. On Thursday, students are given a practice spelling test. If a student obtains a 10/10, then they do not have to take the test the following day. John has not been able to show mastery on the practice

tests. Although the results are not shown, based on observations, John has scored below 48% on his practice spelling tests.

Figure 1- Spelling Tests Collected by Teacher Date 8/30/2012 9/7/2012 9/14/2012 9/21/2012 9/28/2012 10/4/2012 10/12/2012 10/25/2012 11/2/2012 Total Score 1/10 1/10 10/10 6/10 5/10 3/10 7/10 6/10 4/10 43/90 48% Poor Spelling Focus Blends (gr,pr, tw) Digraphs sh,ch,th Digraphs wh,th Digraphs wh,th Short vowels Silent e Silent e part 2 -er endings Long a (ay, ai)

IV: Cycle 2- Intervention and New Benchmark Before the intervention was introduced, I spoke to John

regarding his performance in spelling thus far. I spoke to him regarding the importance of spelling and how we were going to start new activities to help him improve his spelling tests results. I spoke to his mother as well so that she may practice with him at home and establish a reward system. The multi-sensory strategies that I used are in addition to the regular spelling classroom activities. These strategies are taken from the Pre-Referral Intervention Manual. Since John Fails to use spelling rules (73), I implemented suggestion number 3. Also he, Has difficulty with phonetic approaches to spelling (74). Under this category, I implemented suggestions numbers 1 and 26. Since he spells some of the spelling words correct, I implemented suggestion number 15 from Spells words correctly in one context but not in another. The PRIM suggestions that were implemented are noted in Appendix A. The results of two weeks of implementation are shown on figure 2. John was able to make a 22 % improvement in regards to his spelling tests. The practice spelling test results have him at a 60% which also shows improvement compared to his previous results of a score lower than 50%.

Figure 2- Data Collected After Implementation of Multi-Sensory Strategies

Spelling Focus

Practice Spelling Test Date

Practice Spelling Test Score 5/10

Spelling Test Date

Spelling Score

Long eEe, ea Long o Total:

11/8/2012

11/9/2012

7/10

11/15/2012

7/10 12/20 60%

11/16/2012

7/10 14/20 70%

V. Analyze Intervention and Reflection Based on these results, the implementation strategies increased his spelling test scores. However, to fully determine whether these strategies did in fact play a significant role in his overall progress in his spelling tests, more data needs to be collected. As the days went on, I felt John feeling more confident about being able to perform well on the tests. I will continue to use these strategies so John can track his progress. Although I cannot say precisely which strategy proved effective since all strategies were implemented within the two weeks. As a whole, the multi-sensory strategies increased his average test scored and proved effective during this two-week period.

Appendix ASuggestions used from the Pre-Referral Intervention Manual 3. Choose a peer to practice the use of 73. Fails to use spelling rules spelling rules when writing words, sentences, etc, each day with the student. 1. Cut a word apart letter by letter to 74. Has difficulty with phonetic approaches to spelling make a puzzle. Have the student scramble the letters and then arrange them to spell the word 26. Reinforce the student for spelling words phonetically: (a) give the student

a tangible reward (e.g., classroom privileges, line leading, passing out materials, five minutes free time, etc.) or (b) give the student an intangible reward (e.g., praise, handshake, smile, etc.). 15. Tape a list of the students current 78. Spells words correctly in one context but not in another spelling words on his/her desk. Require the student to practice them frequently.

References McCarney, S. B., Wunderlich, K. C., & House, S. N. (2006). Pre-referral intervention manual. 3rd ed. Columbia, Mo.: Hawthorne Educational Services, Inc.

Cassar, M., Treiman, R., Moats, L., Pollo, T., & Kessler, B. (2005). How do the Spellings of Children with Dyslexia Compare with Those of Nondyslexic

Children?. Reading And Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18(1), 2749.

Montgomery, Diane (2007). Spelling, Handwriting, and Dyslexia: Overcoming Barriers to Learning. New York: Routledge

Walton, Margaret (1998). Teaching Reading and Spelling to Dyslexic Children: Getting to Grips with words. New York: David Fulton Publishers