Here at Doodle, we know that learning to spell is so much more than ‘look, cover, write, check’!

It used to be recommended that the best way to learn spellings was to look at the word, cover it and write it out. Whilst this strategy may work for some children, it doesn’t work for all. In order to become a good speller, children need to be using a variety of different strategies and use ones that they find the most useful. This is something we have implemented into our programmes. 

Below, we have given information on each of the three key learning styles (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic) and explained how our questions cover a wide variety of spelling strategies to ensure accessibility for all.

Visual learners

Visual learners learn through pictures and colour. They need to see their learning in order for concepts to really stick. 

In questions, we use pictures to help with the spelling of words that require word-specific knowledge. For example, homophones. If children see a picture of the sea, this will help them create a visual memory that ‘sea’ is spelt ‘sea’ rather than ‘see’. This is powerful for visual learners.

We also include question styles that require children to draw on their visual memory of words or spelling patterns. These are questions that visual learners enjoy. For example, children may be asked to look at a word, cover it and then write it; find a word in a word search; follow the letters in a word through a maze; or choose the correct spelling from a variety of options.

Auditory learners

Auditory learners prefer to learn through listening or talking about their learning. You won’t find them writing any notes!

In DoodleSpell, we use dictation wherever possible, which allow children to hear words they are trying to spell in context. This helps them to understand the meaning of the word and therefore spell it correctly. For example, hearing ‘The knight fought the dragon to a standstill.’ makes it clear that they need to spell ‘knight’ rather than ‘night’! 

Tricky questions also provide an excellent learning experience for auditory learners. If children need help with their tricky questions, having the chance to discuss spellings with a parent, teacher or friend might just be the perfect tonic!

Kinaesthetic learners

Kinaesthetic learners like to be physically involved in what they are doing. They like to use their sense of touch to gain an understanding of the world around them. 

Kinaesthetic learners don’t like reading lots of text. This is why we make our explanations as short as possible and give children the opportunity to jump straight into answering questions.  We also ensure that questions are quick to complete and that there is a wide variety of question styles. It is this combination that helps to keep kinaesthetic learners on their toes!