Month: October 2021

It can be confusing whether to spell a Latin word with -ian or -ion but there is a rule to help. The rule says that you spell –ian at the end of the word if it is someone who does something – e.g., a magician does magic – but it is -ion if the word does not do something, like “station” or “nation”, they mean something but they are not people who do things like magician, electrician, physician, tactician. Watch the 3m video clip below – it shows how to teach -ian.*

If you would like some more spelling hints, there is the new edition of New Zealand dyslexia handbook (NZCER Press, 2023).

Teaching the ABCs and how to read VC (vowel-consonant) and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with letters SATP – some suggestions.

For beginners, start with line 1 of the chart. Explain each letter-sound, e.g., this is — /s/. This is /a/. This is /t/. This is /p/. Students practice saying the sounds when you point to them, s-a-t-p. Students practice sounding out words on the sidebar, a-t at, s-a-t sat, p-a-t pat, t-a-p tap. Teacher can point to letter sounds and students say what the word is, e.g., teacher points to a, points to t – the word is —- “at”. Keep up the practice until students can read all the letter-sounds on lines 1-7 and sound out all the words on the sidebar.