Spelling errors can be classified into two general categories:

• Phonetic or auditory errors

  • Omission of letters or syllables
  • Substitution of letters that sound alike (b and p)
  • Improper sequencing of letters within a word (fram for farm)
  • Fusing of words (toget)³⁸

• Visual errors

  • Substitution of letters that look alike (b for d)
  • Strange spelling of common sight words (nite for night)
  • Letter sequence is phonetically correct but graphically wrong (kitchn for kitchen)³⁹

Practitioners will want to determine if errors result from the omission of a letter or syllable, an insertion of a letter or syllable, or a phonetic substitution.⁴⁰

Spelling struggles

• Spells words differently in the same document
• Demonstrates a weak visual memory for spelling
• Spells phonetically only and cannot remember spelling patterns, e.g. Munday, Toosday, Winsday, Thirsday
• Reverses letters in spelling, e.g. Friday becomes Firday, girl becomes gril
• Exhibits errors that vary from not even resembling the sounds of the words to smaller errors in everyday words
• Omits endings
• Uses logical phonetics to spell words - i.e. meat but spells met
• Adds parts to words, sounds are missing and/or scrambled

From a written sample, practitioners can ask learners to read the written work to observe the following:

• Do they read the passage exactly as written?
• Do they correct their spelling errors?
• Do they pronounce words the way they have spelled them?
• Are the errors at the beginning, middle or end of the words?
• Do they omit, add or substitute words or letters when reading their own writing?