Children have a hard time learning to spell because so many words are not phonetic in the English language.  With that being said when a child is first learning to read and write it is important that they be able to spell words on their own and learn to do so.  So many parents get wrapped up in their child knowing how to spell right that they miss out on the point of their child learning how to sound things out.  This mistake can lead to years of a child having trouble with reading.

So it is important for parents to take a step back and enjoy looking at the works that their children create as they learn to spell things on their own.

Reason 1 – Your child is learning how to sound out words. When they are spelling they will be sounding out the words an putting letters together.  This enforces that they need to sound out letters when trying to read words.  So allowing your child to work through this process is going to make them better readers in the future.

Reason 2 – As children learn how to write and spell they are going to gain confidence in their abilities.  If you are always correcting them or telling them that they are spelling wrong then it is going to attack their confidence and cause them to have problems with being able to feel good about themselves.

Reason 3 – Allowing your child to make mistakes helps teach them how to correct their mistakes in the future.  It is important that children learn how to correct mistakes on their own without having to be told all of the time how to correct them.

Reason 4 – Show your child that you are proud that they are learning something.  Even if they are not spelling words right think about where they are coming from and how far they have come.  Celebrate each of these milestones with your child to help them learn how to have confidence in their abilities.

Reason 5 – Your child is not going to misspell words forever if they are learning how to spell on their own.  In contrast, children who are corrected more often actually end up not learning the things that they need to know to become good spellers.  This means that they are being set up for a life long problem where they will always need a little bit of extra help with their spelling.

Allowing your child to learn how to spell words on his or her own can be a struggle.  This can be especially hard for parents who are great at spelling themselves.  It can also be hard for parents who work in the English field or who write for a living.  However doing so can be very beneficial to the child and will set them up to be better readers and spellers as they get older.