States and Caps

[RHoffman]

States and Capitals

I have a child who has trouble with spelling and suspected dyslexia.

Would you give a word bank for the quizzes? Or accept incorrect spelling?

He’s been using the Seterra app for practice and doing really well, so I know that he can be successful but spelling will be a struggle.

What would you do?

[howiecram]

word bank!

[enbateau]

I would require your child to tell you the state and capital orally before giving a word bank. You can decide on near-point vs far copywork (board vs sheet of paper). Remember that kids with dyslexia may still copy incorrectly, so figure out what you desire of the writing component. You could do purely oral quizzes and keep copywork lowstakes practice.

[momgineer]

One goal the course is correct spelling of the States, but I don’t think correctly spelling the capitals is essential. If your child is capable, with lots of practice, I’d memorizing the state spellings, I would aim for that. My dyslexic wasn’t ready for that when she did this course in 4th grade so I let her have a list of all 50 states in alphabetical order that she could copy from. My current 3rd grader is aiming for correct spelling of states, but I will let her dictate the capital to me. In other words, she has to write the state name and abbreviation, but the she will tell me the capital without a word bank and I will spell it correctly for her. I don’t think I even drilled capitals with my dyslexic. It was enough for her to be able to recall the state name orally if I pointed to a location. She worked on capitals when she was older, but she still doesn’t know them well and she is a college freshman. My son who is now 15 could tell me the state and capital on a blank map even before we started the course in 3rd. It was just a passion of his. He mastered spelling the state names but not the capitals.

[RHoffman]

That’s good advice. I was worried with giving a word bank that he wouldn’t be doing it all from memory. But maybe I will quiz him orally first and then hand him a word bank to fill it all out.

Yes, sometimes even with copywork he will flip things or miss things in the spelling. I think I will just use the written as good practice but strive for oral scores being high.