Fix Consonant Blend Spelling Errors with Phonemic Awareness

Does your child misspell words that have consonant blends in them, guess at spelling, and forget to sound out the words before attempting to write them?

This common issue poses a challenge for many parents, especially when most educational curricula offer little to no guidance on addressing these struggles effectively.

As an Orton-Gillingham Dyslexia Interventionist, I love using a multi-sensory approach to improve spelling skills. This is one of my methods that has proven effective in helping children overcome their spelling difficulties.

When kids struggle to spell out words correctly that have consonant blends, there are several strategies one can use.   I usually do a quick flashcard review first where I have my students say the sounds of all the letter-combinations that they know; however, to keep this blog simple, I’m starting with a two-step guide on how to implement one technique.  

Preparation Before Your Lesson:

Collect alphabet letters: Grab all the alphabet letter flashcards that your child has learned so far. This includes the initial and final consonant blends that you have reviewed with them previously.  

(Now if you have never reviewed consonant blends together as one sound, first teach them to recognize and read these blends before requiring spelling of them.)

Make it Multi-Sensory: When saying a consonant blend, make sure to have your child look at your mouth shape as you say the blend.  Have your child repeat the blend sound, before spelling it. This auditory, visual, and writing (kinesthetic) technique helps to cement the consonant blend spellings in their brains. Do you want more strategies? Determine where your child is at and choose from these 21 activites.

Teaching Technique:

1. Pronounce Sounds of Known Letter-combinations: (Do not show the flashcards to your child.) Go through these consonant blend flashcards, say the blend sounds and have your child write down the spelling/s for that blend.

2. Write Some Practice Words: Give your child targeted practice with any word they misspell. If they misspell the word ‘band’ for example, give them the chance to review the ‘-nd’ blend, read some words with ‘-nd’ and write several words that end ‘nd’.

This kind of specific practice is one of the methods to help your child learn to spell more effectively. They are learning to write (and see) the specific spelling that they hear, which is an important step for spelling. They will slowly include the whole letter-combination in the words they spell.

Check out this 4:30-minute YouTube video where I demonstrate this strategy…../

Watch for the next blog with another spelling tip. Stepping back and improving Phonemic Awareness skills will aid students with poor spelling.