Playful dysorthographia exercises

For a child with dysorthographia, spelling often means failure and corrections in red. Turning exercises into games completely changes their relationship with writing. They repeat without even realising it, and enjoy playing with words. Here are concrete ideas for spelling games, easy to make at home.

Why play with spelling

Spelling is learnt through repetition and memorisation. Worksheets quickly become tiring, especially for a child who has often failed. Games allow repetition without boredom, in a relaxed atmosphere.

Games also remove the fear of making mistakes, since a mistake is just a missed move in a round. The child dares to try. They sometimes even ask to play again. They learn from their mistakes without feeling judged. The page jeux d’orthographe also presents commercial games.

Adapted hangman

The game of hangman requires thinking about each letter of a word. We choose words worked on during the week, and the child guesses the letters one by one. They have to picture the spelling of the word to find the right letters.

The game can be adapted by giving a hint about the difficulty of the word, such as “there is a double consonant”. Roles can also be reversed: the child chooses the word and the adult guesses. They must then know its spelling perfectly. This game is very popular. It is played on a slate, in a few minutes.

Crosswords and word searches

Simple crosswords require writing each word letter by letter, respecting the number of squares. The child cannot cheat with an extra or missing letter. It is an excellent spelling exercise. The squares enforce rigour without the adult having to demand it.

Grids can be made with the words of the week, using an online generator or by hand. Word searches, where hidden words must be found in a grid, train visual memory. These games can be done alone, independently. They can fill a journey or a wait. The child can check their answers alone using the solution.

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Cards and families

A family card game made with word families, such as “terre, terrain, enterrer, terrasse”, works on common spelling. Each family has a colour. The child asks for cards and reads the words aloud. They quickly spot the part common to the whole family.

You can also make a memory game of homophones, with pairs such as “vert” and a drawing of the colour green, “verre” and a drawing of a glass. The child matches each word to its meaning. They memorise the different spellings. The drawing serves as a memory anchor. Word families provide plenty of material.

The spelling detective

The adult writes a short text, deliberately slipping in a few mistakes, and the child must find them. Each mistake found earns a point. The child becomes the proofreader.

This game reverses the usual roles and values the child. It develops their critical eye, which they will then apply to their own texts. They take obvious pleasure in finding the adult’s errors. The number of hidden mistakes can be announced to guide them. This way they know when they have finished their search. The page on proofreading extends this work.

Challenges and records

Many children enjoy challenges: writing five words without a mistake, finding ten words with “ou” in one minute, spelling a difficult word backwards. These short challenges are motivating and easily repeated. The only competitor is their score from the day before.

It is important that challenges remain within reach, so that they succeed often. They are never compared with their brothers and sisters. The pleasure of succeeding matters more than the difficulty. A records chart can be hung in their bedroom. They proudly add to it with each new challenge completed.

Playing and getting support

Games are a valuable addition, but they do not replace speech and language therapy. The speech and language therapist often uses games in sessions and can recommend those suited to the child. It is useful to ask them for ideas. They know games adapted to each difficulty.

If you are looking for a speech and language therapist, the directory ProfessionnelsDys lets you search by town, by disorder and by age. You can show them the games made at home. The page jeux pour enfants dysorthographiques presents further ideas.