How common are spelling difficulties?
Almost all people with developmental reading or language disabilities have great difficulty spelling. In the new definition of dyslexia, people with the condition known as dyslexia are noted to have “conspicuous” problems with spelling and writing. People can also have specific spelling disabilities that is, they can be poor spellers, even though they are pretty good readers. These problems are very common, although no one has done an accurate estimate of the prevalence to date. What causes people to be poor spellers? Spelling problems, like reading problems, originate with language learning weaknesses. Spelling disability does not reflect a general “visual memory” problem but a more specific problem with awareness of and memory for language structure, including the letters in words. People who are poor spellers typically have trouble analyzing the sounds, syllables, and meaningful parts of words in both spoken language and written language. In addition, they often have trouble learnin
