A: Phonics rules fall squarely into left-brained territory which is difficult for right-brain dominant children, many of whom struggle with reading as a result. How do we get around that? We use right-brained elements to teach spelling and phonics. This is not a crutch! Far from it! What we do when we link left-brained elements to right-brained strategies is that we strengthen the communication between the hemispheres in the brain and we help strengthen a child’s abilities in working within their areas of weakness! When I taught school, I used right-brained strategies with ALL my students because those left-brainers needed the depth of meaning they acquired from the right-brained strategies we used. This helped them with meaning and comprehension even if they were not struggling to recognize words as they read. And, of course, including right-brained strategies helped those students who naturally rely more on their right hemisphere.
A couple of the materials I developed in my classroom to reach both left- and right-brained learners include the SnapWords™ sight word cards and The Illustrated Book of Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns. Use these two resources together: introduce sight words first, then add a lesson from the book. Teaching this way will mean that you are covering sight word acquisition AND teaching spelling and phonics, all in a right-brain friendly way.
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