Spelling Difficulties: What's Really Going On

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-09-30

Why is spelling hard for some children?

There are two ways to spell a word, and a skilled speller uses both. One is turning the sounds into letters. The other is recalling the stored spelling of that word.

Words that sound alike show why both are needed. You cannot spell their by sounding it out. It sounds just like there. The letters have to be stored. The same goes for to, too and two. It goes for every odd spelling English has kept. That is a fact about how English is written, not a finding about children.

Turning sounds into letters is the only way to spell a word you have never seen. Children learn stored spellings alongside sounding out, not instead of it.

So spelling is not one skill. In our view, the useful question is which job is hard for your child.

Where spelling can go wrong

In our view, both ways of spelling are in every speller. This is not two kinds of child. A child can be fine at one way and stuck on the other.

Here are two made-up examples, to show the idea.

• Suppose your child writes sed for said. The sounds are all there. To us, that points at the stored spelling.
• Suppose your child writes bg for big. A sound is missing. To us, that points at turning sounds into letters.

Here is some of what studies found.

One UK study compared 641 children at different stages of elementary school (Niolaki and colleagues, 2023). Odd words drew on stored whole-word forms more than regular words did. That was more so in the older groups. Made-up words drew on them less than odd words did. The study compared different children at one time. It did not follow the same children as they grew.

One German study looked at 66 children in third grade (Zarić, Hasselhorn and Nagler, 2021). Knowing the spelling of particular words went with better spelling. That is a link found at one time, not a cause. The study's check on sound skills was weak. And German is spelled more regularly than English.

Another study looked at free writing from 267 children in Northern Ireland (McMurray, Morrow and Bower, 2026). Each child gave one piece. These children had the most serious reading and writing trouble in their year. Their misspellings mostly followed the sounds. They chose the wrong spelling where a sound can be spelled more than one way. The study had no test to compare.

Nearly all the studies we hold on stored spellings measured links, or used short lab tasks. So they mostly show what goes with good spelling. They do not show what teaching does in school.

Spelling on a test vs spelling in a story

Suppose your child passes the Friday spelling test. Then Monday's story is full of spelling mistakes.

The two tasks are not the same. On a test, the word is given. The child knows which words are coming. In a story, the child picks the words. They also hold the sentence in mind. In our view, a test lets more attention go to the spelling.

No study we hold compares the same words spelled in a story and on a test. The nearest is a study of Italian first graders (Bigozzi, Tarchi and Pinto, 2016). The children made fewer errors on words they chose than on a list read out to them. So the gap may come from the task or from the words chosen. In longer writing, a dictated text and a free story did not clearly differ. Italian is spelled more regularly than English.

Our dysgraphia screener asks whether spelling is much worse when writing than when spelling out loud. That is a question we ask, not a finding. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too — that's the only route to those supports.

Here is what some small studies of writing found.

• Less varied words. Children with dyslexia used less varied words in writing than in speech (Sumner, Connelly and Barnett, 2016). So did younger children at the same spelling level. Children the same age without dyslexia did the opposite. That is a link, not a cause. We could read only its summary.
• Fewer errors caught. Children with spelling trouble caught and fixed fewer of their own errors (Wengelin and colleagues, 2024). We could read only its summary.
• Copying and dictation. Children with spelling trouble copied a text (Re and Cornoldi, 2015). They also wrote it as it was read aloud. They made fewer errors copying. They still made more errors than other children. The groups were small and Italian.

To us, a child may stick to words they know how to spell. So in our view, one story can hide how many words a child knows.

In a 2014 review of 53 studies, Graham and Santangelo found that teaching spelling directly works. They also found gains in spelling while writing, not only on tests.

In our view, look at the spelling in your child's own writing, as well as on the test.

Is it dyslexia or dysgraphia?

You may have heard both words. Spelling sits inside both of them.

Dyslexia is a name for a pattern of trouble reading words, spelling, or both.

Dysgraphia is a word for a pattern of trouble with handwriting, spelling, or getting thoughts onto paper. People use the word for different things.

In our view, spelling trouble alone does not tell you which word fits.

Experts draw the line in different places. In one research group's scheme, dysgraphia is trouble forming letters by hand (Berninger, Richards and Abbott, 2015). In that scheme, dyslexia is trouble spelling and reading words. It is one scheme, not the definition. One German study picked its dysgraphia group with a spelling test (Döhla, Willmes and Heim, 2018). It had no handwriting measure.

Reading and spelling can also come apart. A large German study found some children with trouble in spelling only (Moll and Landerl, 2009). Others had trouble in reading only. We could read only its summary.

Trouble with writing and trouble with reading often go together. Several studies we hold found this, in different kinds of samples. They counted different things, so no one rate applies to all children. The research we hold does not settle whether one causes the other.

When more than one area is hard, we look at more than one.

No study we hold tests home signs for telling dysgraphia from dyslexia. Our rule is to describe patterns on these pages. We do not put a name on a child.

In our view, look at which job goes wrong. Is it reading the words, spelling them, forming the letters, or getting ideas down?

Our free screener is a set of questions you answer about what you see at home. We have one for dysgraphia and one for dyslexia. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too — that's the only route to those supports.

What helps

Spelling improves with spelling instruction.

Handwriting, spelling and getting ideas down each get better when taught.

• Handwriting. Santangelo and Graham (2016) pooled studies of teaching handwriting. Handwriting lessons made handwriting clearer and faster than other lessons or none.
• Spelling. In a 2014 review of 53 studies, Graham and Santangelo found that teaching spelling directly works. They also found gains in spelling while writing, not only on tests.
• Getting ideas down. Two reviews support teaching children how to plan and revise (Graham and Perin, 2007; Gillespie and Graham, 2014). The first covered grades 4 to 12. The second covered students with learning disabilities.

Work on handwriting, spelling and composing side by side.

One small trial looked at 30 first graders (Graham, Harris and Adkins, 2018). They were slower than classmates to learn handwriting and spelling. They had extra one-to-one lessons in both. They gained more in spelling than children given lessons on word sounds. Their stories did not get longer or better. We could read only its summary.

Teach both ways of spelling. To us, teaching the stored spelling directly is a separate job from teaching the sounds. None of this is a reason to teach less phonics.

Our own routine for a word that will not stick is short. Your child looks at the word and says the letters. Then they cover it, write it from memory, and check it. That routine is ours. Part of it has been tested. In three small studies, first and second graders heard a word, wrote it from memory, then checked it. That beat copying the words over and over (Jones and colleagues, 2016). Those children were not picked for spelling trouble. We hold no study that tests training in stored spellings for children with writing trouble.

Ask the school one question: "Is spelling being taught directly?"

A keyboard takes away forming the letters. It does not take away spelling, composing or holding the sentence in mind. It is worth trying, and worth watching closely. Typing has to be taught, like handwriting.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Writing well below your child's other schoolwork.
• A teacher who raises a concern about writing.
• Extreme upset about writing.
• Complete avoidance of writing.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.