What is Phonetic Spelling?

If you are a teacher, you can probably figure out this sentence written by a 5 year old: “The bdrfi iz prpl.” When I asked the student what it said, they proudly pointed to each word and read, “The butterfly is purple.” Although you may feel inclined to have the student fix the spelling and rewrite the sentence, this is actually an important developmental milestone. We call this stage of spelling, phonetic spelling.

What is phonetic spelling and why is it important? 

Phonetic spelling or invented spelling is spelling a word based on the sounds they hear. English is a very complicated language, with many rules and irregular patterns and words. When learning how to spell, students will move through different stages, one of which is phonetic spelling. For example, a student may spell the word “pencil” as “pensul” because that is how it sounds.

Phonetic spelling is a developmental milestone when it comes to phonics, spelling, and writing. This is when students are matching sound to letter and developing confidence to spell and write words. Phonetic spelling should always be encouraged, especially in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Grade! 

How do we encourage students to spell phonetically?

In order to build students’ confidence with spelling and writing independently, we need to encourage phonetic spelling. Once students were able to orally segment words, we began to practice spelling. With independent writing, encourage them to not be afraid to try and spell big words. Anytime a student would try to spell a word like “beautiful”, I would give them a shout out and say how proud I was that they used a long word. I made sure the focus was on what they were writing, rather than how they were spelling. This always helped my students become confident, independent writers. 

When should you correct spelling?

When students are in the phonetic spelling stage, it is okay for them to spell words incorrectly, as long as it is still phonetic. I very rarely correct student’s spelling, however we don’t want them to just use one sound per word. They should be able to use multiple sounds when spelling. Here are a few times we do want to correct their spelling. 

If students have learned the phonics skill and should be able to spell it. For example, if a student can spell CVC words, then they should be able to spell words like “cat”, “mix” or “run” correctly. If they are missing a sound or have a different sound in place, that is a great learning opportunity to revisit spelling CVC words. 

Another example of when you should correct spelling is when students misspell previously learned high frequency words or sight words. My students always had a word wall of irregular words, like “the” or “said” to help them remember how to spell those words. You can train students to look around the room to help spell a word or use a visual with words that cannot be spelled phonetically.  

How do we explain to parents to not correct spelling?

This one is tricky to explain to parents. They want their child to be able to spell correctly and may feel inclined to correct spelling. If their child asks how to spell a word, they will just tell them, rather than challenge them to sound it out and spell it on their own. We want parents to understand that this is developmental and we want to encourage it! 

There may be a few parents who don’t realize the benefits of phonetic spelling. They will ask why the teacher is not correcting the spelling that is getting sent home with their child. I’ve also had children who were so frustrated when they didn’t know how to spell a word because they were so afraid of making a mistake and spelling it wrong. The best way to get the parents on the same page is to communicate with them on the purpose of phonetic spelling. I always sent home this letter from Susan Jones Teaching to further explain phonetic spelling. 

Do you have another question about phonetic spelling? Let me know in the comments below!