What Is Inventive (Phonetic) Spelling?
You may have noticed that your child has been trying to spell words using inventive spelling. Students are using what they know about letters and sounds to spell words. For example, students might write pilo to represent the word pillow. This is a difficult process for many students and it involves the application of several skills. Students need to listen to the sounds in the word they are trying to spell and determine which letter makes each sound. Then they have to remember what the letters look like and how to write the letters. The children are also listening for the correct placement of each letter sound. The first sound of the word hat is /h/, the middle sound is /a/, and ending sound is /t/. Inventive spelling is one of the developmental stages of writing and it allows children the opportunity to write their thoughts and express their creativity without worrying about conventional spelling. Students who are worried about spelling each word correctly may write only the words they know are correct or avoid writing altogether.