Even children who read on grade level may struggle with spelling. When learning any language, writing is typically the most difficult thing to grasp. This is why I never assume just because a child can speak or read well that they’ll automatically be able to spell or write well.

So how can you help a child who needs more love and attention when it comes to spelling words correctly?

Enter sound box spelling.

What is sound box spelling?

Sound box spelling, officially known as Elkonin Boxes, was developed by D. B. Elkonin. It is a strategy used to help students develop phonological and phonemic awareness because it encourages them to focus on segmenting and blending phonemes in a word. Phonemes are the units of sound in a word. Phonological and phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the smallest unit of sound, or phoneme, in a word.

For example, if I a child hears the word sat, you want them to be able to segment each of the sounds in that word. You want them to be able to tell you the word sat, when sounded out, is: /s/, /a/, /t/.

In my video below, I go into more detail about how to implement sound box spelling.

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