Adjective agreement exercise for dysorthographia

“Des fleurs rouge” or “des fleurs rouges”? “Une robe bleu” or “une robe bleue”? Adjective agreement requires identifying the noun it relates to, then applying its gender and number. For a child with dysorthographia, these often silent endings are easy to forget. Here are visual exercises to make them obvious.

Why adjective agreement is forgotten

Many agreement endings cannot be heard: “bleu” and “bleue”, “grand” and “grands” sound the same. A child who writes by ear has no clue to add them. They must reason using meaning and grammar.

This reasoning requires knowing which noun the adjective relates to, which is not always obvious when they are far apart. One must also think about gender and number at the same time. That is a lot for a child who is already making an effort to write the sounds. The page learning agreement rules presents the general context.

Linking the adjective to the noun

The first reflex to build is to look for the noun the adjective relates to, asking: “what is red?”, “what is big?”. The child then draws an arrow from the adjective to the noun. This link becomes visible.

Start with simple word groups, where the adjective is right next to the noun: “une fleur rouge”, “des chats noirs”. Then move on to sentences where the adjective is further away: “les fleurs du jardin sont rouges”. The arrow helps avoid getting lost. This reflex then transfers to verb agreement.

A colour code for gender and number

Colours can be used to mark gender and number. For example, feminine in pink and plural in green. The child colours the noun according to its gender and number, then colours the adjective’s ending in the same colour.

This code makes agreement markers very visible. The child sees that the feminine “e” and the plural “s” appear both on the noun and on the adjective. They understand the logic of agreement. The colours are removed gradually, once the reflex is established.

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Transforming to understand

An effective exercise consists of transforming a word group by changing its gender or number. “Un petit chien” becomes “une petite chienne”, then “des petits chiens”. The child observes how the adjective changes each time.

Start orally, where possible, as some adjectives change sound in the feminine, such as “petit” and “petite”. The ear then helps. Next, move on to writing, with adjectives whose agreement cannot be heard. The page on the plural of nouns prepares this work.

Adjectives whose agreement can be heard

For some adjectives, the feminine can be heard: “grand” and “grande”, “vert” and “verte”, “gros” and “grosse”. The child can be asked to say the group in the feminine so that they hear the final consonant. This trick helps them recover the silent letter in the masculine.

This link between the feminine and the silent letter is very useful. The child understands that “grand” takes a “d” because it is heard in “grande”. They kill two birds with one stone. The same reasoning serves for silent letters.

Agreeing in one's own sentences

Once the exercises have been mastered, the child must apply agreement in their own writing. They can be asked to describe an object, an animal or a person, using several adjectives. They write their description, then check each agreement with the arrow.

This free production shows whether the rule is truly acquired. Remaining errors indicate what still needs working on. They are corrected together, returning to the arrow and the colours. The page on proofreading offers a method for checking agreements.

Forgotten agreements: help from a speech and language therapist

If agreements remain very fragile despite practice, the speech and language therapist may suggest targeted work on grammatical morphology. They will also help the child better analyse sentences. The exercises on this page support this work without replacing it.

You can find speech and language therapists by town in the ProfessionnelsDys directory, by selecting dysorthographia. Remember to show a few recent written samples. Subject-verb agreement is the subject of another page.