Sequential Spelling

Ages 8 - 88 (Grades 3-12+)
See immediate results with Sequential Spelling. Minimize study time and reduce test-taking anxiety! Sequential Spelling teaches students to recognize patterns of spelling based on the rules of the English language, but without the complicated explanations.

Don McCabe, author, struggled with dyslexia in his younger days. He overcame his dyslexia and founded the AVKO (Audio, Visual, Kinesthetic, and Oral) Dyslexia Research Foundation, Inc. He has dedicated his life and research to teaching dyslexics how to spell and read through a multi-sensory approach to learning. The result is Sequential Spelling.

All children can benefit from Sequential Spelling with just 10 minutes a day!

Sequential Spelling is a unique, easy to use, and effective seven level spelling program for teaching the patterns of English Spelling. Every Sequential Spelling book contains 180 lessons (about 72 pages). The sequences are not based on grade level curriculum, they are based on building from easy words to advanced words. For example: all, tall, stall, install, installment, installation.

McCabe used a scientific method to evaluate 5,500 words from The New Iowa Spelling Scale (Greene), rank them from easiest to most difficult, and then identify the patterns in those words. The words in Volume 1 tend to have a higher number of words to each pattern and are essentially the "simple" words of our language. Volume 1 students spell the word presidential but only after they have studied many, many, -ide words in their progressive, structural permutations. Examples: hide, ride, side, reside and preside gradually build to resident, residential, and, of course, president and presidential.

McCabe urges all students to start with Level 1 - and we agree.

A traditional spelling program gives the child a list of words to study, which many children promptly forget after the test at the end of the week. With Sequential Spelling, the child is not required to study anything, and yet, they remember the patterns used to spell the words – even after the test!

Sequential Spelling is great for homeschool parents, tutors, regular classrooms, or for teachers to have parents use at home. Nearly every teacher has some students who need one-to-one help in spelling. This spelling program is designed for those parents to help their children who are not succeeding with the standard textbook approach. Most parents are more than willing to purchase and use this book at home to help their child.

What Makes the Sequential Spelling Program Different?

Traditional Spelling Program Gives the child a list of words to study (and they forget them after the test at the end of the week). Tests the child on individual words. The tests are corrected by the teacher/parent with the looming red ink pen—after the tests are done. The rules of the English language are presented in dry, hard-to-understand ways outside of the spelling program. The overall emphasis is on a grade for one week over one set of words. The emphasis is on a theme of words (colors). The sequencing of the words may be due to introduction of words into the curriculum, instead of the relative difficulty. There may be a guilt reaction when children study but don’t do well on the test on Friday.

Sequential Spelling The child doesn’t study anything (they remember the patterns used to spell the words—even after the test). Tests the child on patterns of the English language. The child corrects his own paper as he is taking the test immediately. The rules of the English language are embedded in the program, without lengthy explanations. The emphasis is on learning the patterns of spelling for mastery of the language. The emphasis is on the meanings of the words (root words, suffixes). The sequencing of the words is based on research and the building of English words from the root word to expanded forms. Children build confidence when they can spell words that they’ve never seen before without studying.

Ordering