I think it's very pro-active and great that you want to do this, and of course just about anything you do to support this at home has got to be helpful. That being said, however much you may want to support your child's education at home, unless your really going to go all out and home-school entirely, you may not want to let the school lay this at your feet this way. Spelling is still an issue for my daughter, and she's in 7th grade. Great ideas, but she often misspells the same word in several different ways on the same paper. You are not really going to know whether this is related to a specific learning disability or not until he's tested. If it is, and your son is going to remain in this school, he is going to need more support from his school with this. Even if it's not dyslexia or dysgraphia, or some other specific learning disability -his AD/HD may very much affect things like handwriting, spelling, remembering the steps in long division, and memorizing multiplication tables, in addition to making him just a little more likely to forget to write down homework assignments, losing assignments, simply not turning things in, and doing not so well on timed tests. Keep good records of what's happening with this, and keep asking for help from the school. Whatever you do at home needs to support his in-school education, not replace it entirely. I'm a big believer in judging individual progress, not necessarily only comparing with what everyone else is doing, at least up to a point. I know that concept can get out of control, and over done, when high school students aren't able to read, etc., and I'm not suggesting that you never compare your kid's progress with where he should be. However, if this is a particular problem area for him, expecting some miracle-program to catch him up might not be realistic. When it comes to vocabulary, it isn't just about spelling, anyway. How is his comprehension of the vocabulary he's being taught? I would hope that would weigh more heavily than just spelling, just like the content of a paper or a paragraph should weigh more heavily than neat handwriting. This sounds like an area for testing, and maybe even for further modifications, since just cutting down the number of words didn't work. At the same time, I'd want to make sure he's getting access to the part of this that really matters-comprehending and being able to use the vocabulary. The spelling may simply never really come naturally for him. I would find out first if this really is what the school wants, or just a pet thing of this particular teacher's. Then I would bring my concerns to the school and request testing, in writing. There going to do that, and they'll be on a timetable. Talk this over with the school when that testing comes back, there will be a meeting about it. Share what you've done at home, sure, but don't let the school get out of acknowledging that he's having a really hard time with this, and that this falls into their realm of responsibility. Their goal should be to help him, not just tell you what he's not good at, or use it as a reason to put him in slower classes-unless there's a real need for that. Even if there is, you have every right to then find out what exactly they want to do, and why they think whatever they propose is going to work for him. That's also a good time to find out what else you can do at home to support this. Rather than trying to come up with a replacement for whatever program they have at school, I'd be trying to instead, fit their existing program to meet your son's individual needs. That's the real purpose of an IEP, anyway.

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Spellingcity.com helps my daughter. It's also free.

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Our school system uses something called Scientific Spelling. They seem really keen on it.

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Amom2just2 said: Spellingcity.com helps my daughter. It's also free.

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As an adult w/ ADD, and an abysmal speller, I have tried to teach my daughter to avoid my mistakes/misconceptions about spelling. For me, I just wanted to get it done, fast, I didn't enjoy it, didn't understand why it was important.

Instead of understanding the phonetics, I was purely memorizing the list. Instead of memorizing 50 different sounds, etc, I was memorizing 100s of different words. I think that if you explain to your child that life will be easier if they take a little extra time now to learn it the right way, not just the fast way, in the future they'll be a lot happier. Take into consideration though that they might have a hard time differentiating between the sounds, like I did, so you might also focus on that.

I actually recently had this conversation w/ my 7 year old and she said it "made a lot of sense".

I hope this might help you understand your son's thought process too. :) Talking to other ADD adult friends confirmed this was not uncommon.

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I think it would help if you tried to pinpoint what aspect of spelling is causing the problem. For example, is he getting the letters themselves confused, like switching them around for instance? Is it the sounds that are throwing him off (I have this problem, I always have to ask people to write things down because there are too many sounds in English that sound exactly alike)? Do the spelling problems happen more often when he has to spell a word after hearing someone say it or when he just has to copy it off a list?

I even knew one kid, I think he was in the 2nd grade to 4th grade range, who went to the same neighbor I did for tutoring (I was 9th grade at the time). He had major problems with spelling because his hearing was so sensitive that when he tried to spell words based on sound he would end up spelling them differently depending on who told him the word to spell.

Don't worry too much though; English is one of the top three hardest languages to learn mostly because it has way too many spelling and grammar rules from too many source languages all crammed together, so most kids have problems with it at some time or another.

As my 11th grade English teacher said: "English is the language that mugs other languages in dark alleyways and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary."

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Thank you all SO much. I've gotten quite a few good responses here! We have an SST scheduled for Friday and I've already sent in a letter asking for testing. Now we're preparing for the SST. I'm hoping this district is proactive and agrees with us that testing and an IEP are in order. I'd still love to hear any other suggestions. I feel so much better hearing that it is fairly normal for an ADD kid to struggle with spelling. I have had ADD myself since I can remember but language arts were always my strength. I struggled with math but I actually ended up majoring in English Lit in college. Anyway, it's good to know we're not alone : ) Heidi

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I have a male ADHer.. since he was in 2nd grade.. Spelling has always been an issue and continues to be.. now at 16.. I give you many ideas to make this less of a stress at school while achieving better success and increasing confidence. In your student's IEP during your next meeting.. under accommodations have them put the following things.. if your agree it will help him. 1. Cant not be marked down for sp. errors for writing, worksheets..etc.. (this almost always increases the grade and boosts self esteem). 2. Student is allowed to take verbal, and written spelling tests. the better of the 2 grades will be counted. 3. allow student to type spelling words for practice, and tests. (this sometimes makes a difference due to the stress of writing, a lot of kids with ADHD have writing issues as well,, if you put those stressers together spelling and writing.. you will get negative results. ) These are just some suggestions. you know what she is capable of.. she should still practice writing of course as this is a skill needed for life. It just shouldn't be what keeps him from being successful. Other things I've done to make practicing spelling more enjoyable are writing the words in shaving cream, using a individualized size white board, playing hangman with spelling words, good luck and have fun watching her gain success!!!!!!!!!!! If you have trouble getting him an IEP go to Wrights Law.com

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I don't know whether this could helps, but you can have a try. My girl has been using the vocabulary and English Language Art programs from beestar. The content of the worksheets is intersting and the difficulty increases by degrees. Beestar helps DD a lot. Hope it works with your kid, too. Lisa

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