WCECW22043 Helping the Struggling Speller

This talk will examine spelling as a skill and also as a developmental process. It will explore reasons why children struggle with spelling and what can be done to overcome these difficulties. It will also examine strategies to aid spelling development. Using case studies, it will show how to detect spelling difficulties and suggest methodologies.

Aims:

*    To examine reasons of spelling failure and offer methodologies

*     To examine spelling as a developmental process

*    To suggest different ways of assessing spelling.

*    To empower teachers to detect spelling difficulties

Tutor bio 

Brendan Culligan

Brendan spent thirty years as a primary school teacher in Dublin. He specialised in learning support teaching for fifteen of these years. He spent another fifteen years lecturing in initial teacher training both in Froebel College of Education and Marino Institute of Education. He was a member of the D.E.S. task force on Dyslexia. He is a past secretary of I.L.S.A. and past president of the Literacy Association of Ireland. He delivered the keynote address at their conference. He is a designer and tutor of inservice on Literacy Difficulties and has presented papers both nationally and internationally. He has edited journals for both I.L.S.A. and L.A.I. He has published many articles on literacy and is the author of ‘Improving Children’s Spelling’ and also ‘Spelling and Handwriting’. He is the author of ‘Go with the Flow’, a cursive handwriting programme from the beginning of schooling. His latest book ‘Teaching Spelling’ is currently in press.