AVKO Sequential Spelling: It Works!

I picked up AVKO Sequential Spelling (used $10 on Homeschool Classifieds.com) on the advice of a parent who also has a challenged speller. Developed by the AVKO Dyslexia Research Foundation, the program uses an Audio-Visual-Kinesthetic-Oral teaching approach (thus the acronym AVKO).

The AVKO Sequential Spelling Tests were developed to utilize the word family approach sequentially and to apply the very simple flesh-and-blood teaching machine techniques of having children correct their own mistakes when they make them--not hours, days, or even weeks later.
Perhaps the most important difference between the traditional approach to spelling and the AVKO approach is that we use tests as a learning device and not as a method of evaluation. We believe that the natural method of learning is learning from mistakes, and that is why we want children to correct their own mistakes when they make them--so they can learn from them.

(from AVKO Sequential Spelling 1, page 4) 

Each day I dictate 25 words to Peter, using a different list each time. After each word he looks at the correct spelling and corrects his attempt, if necessary, before we move on to another word. A couple different word families are recycled for about eight days--with different suffixes and prefixes added to make longer, varied words--before the program moves on to introduce a few more families. It teaches homophones as well.

Peter and I love it, finding it painless and sensible. And it works!  I highly recommend this program even if your student is in traditional school and has no particular spelling difficulty. Your child will simply learn more from this. Peter doesn't have dyslexia, but he does have a poor visual memory (struggles to attend to visual details).

Only taking a short time each day, it helps all students transfer their word-family learning to their daily writing. With traditional spelling programs most students memorize a group of words each week--forgetting them by Monday in most cases.

I'm not sure why these photos turned sideways, but I decided not to drive myself nuts trying to shift them. Been there, done that, and never succeeded in the past.

There you have it!  A spelling program that works! Here is the website, http://www.avko.org/sequentialspelling.html, where you will find seven different levels designed to teach all the word families in seven years of schooling. The levels are not based on grade level.

They have other products as well. Here is there about us page: http://www.avko.org/aboutus.html