Dysorthographia exercise silent letters

Silent letters, which are written but not pronounced, are a real puzzle for a child with dysorthographia. They write “peti”, “gran” or “cha”, because they transcribe what they hear. Fortunately, many of these letters can be recovered thanks to a simple trick. Here are some exercises to learn them without copying them out endlessly.

Why silent letters are forgotten

A child with dysorthographia relies mainly on sound when writing. A letter that cannot be heard therefore has no reason to appear in their word. They write the word as they pronounce it, which makes sense from their point of view.

To recover these letters, they need to use a strategy other than the ear: the visual memory of the word or reasoning about its word family. These strategies require explicit teaching. They do not develop on their own. The page dysorthographia and silent letters covers this problem in detail.

The feminine and word family trick

Most silent letters at the end of a word can be heard in a word from the same family. The “t” in “petit” is heard in “petite”, the “d” in “grand” in “grande”, the “s” in “gros” in “grosse”. This trick makes it possible to recover the letter without having memorised it.

You can train the child to ask themselves: “Do I know a word from the same family?”. “Chat” gives “chaton”, “lait” gives “laitier”, “bord” gives “border”. They become a little word detective. The page on word families looks at this method in more depth.

Playing detective with hidden letters

One game involves offering words without their silent letter, and asking the child to find it by looking for a word from the same family. “Un enfan…”: they look for “enfance” and add the “t”. Each letter found earns a point.

You can make cards with the incomplete word on one side and the word from the same family on the other. The child turns the card over to check. This game can be played alone or in pairs. It turns an abstract rule into an enjoyable challenge.

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Silent letters without a family

Some silent letters cannot be recovered through word families, such as the “s” in “temps” or the “x” in “prix”. For these words, spelling needs to be memorised, one word at a time.

Look at the word, colour the silent letter, spell it out, cover the word and write it from memory. You can also invent a short sentence to remember it: “in temps, the s hides like the minutes slipping by”. These mnemonic devices work well when the child invents them themselves. This method is also the one used for irregular words.

Silent letters in the middle of words

Some silent letters appear in the middle of words, such as the “h” in “cahier” or the “e” in “dévouement”. They are even harder to remember. They are worked on case by case, starting with the most frequent words.

The initial “h”, as in “hôpital” or “histoire”, also needs to be memorised. These words can be grouped on a poster, with the “h” in colour. Look at the poster again from time to time. There is no need to learn everything at once; a few words a week is better.

Thinking about silent letters when writing

Once the tricks have been learned, the child must remember to use them when writing. You can offer them a short dictation of words or sentences, then ask them to reread, looking for silent letters. They check every word that ends in an open sound.

This targeted rereading is more effective than a general rereading. The child knows what they are looking for. Over time, the question of the silent letter becomes automatic. The page on rereading sets out this method.

When the help of a speech and language therapist is useful

If the child continues to forget almost all silent letters despite practice, this may be a lexical dysorthographia, which affects the memory of how words are spelt. Targeted speech and language therapy is then useful. The games on this page support this work, without replacing it.

On the ProfessionnelsDys directory, you will find speech and language therapists by town, with the option of specifying the disorder. Remember to mention the most frequent types of errors. The page on lexical dysorthographia describes this profile.