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My 9YO is on number 89 in level 2 dictation. I think I knew this is what she was doing, but basically she memorizes the dictation passage when she studies it to herself and then writes it down. Pretty often recently she will just keep writing if I am not dictating it to her fast enough. She does great, she hardly ever misses anything. I know the idea is for them to have the mental snapshot/image of the words and it seems like that is what she does. Though she likes to say the passage out loud and spell out loud as she studies.

Her spelling overall has improved and she is more confident when she has to write out her own sentences or answers. But still sometimes she seems frozen by words that she doesn't remember or isn't familiar with. It's like if she doesn't have that mental image of the word, she has no idea where to start to try and spell it. She doesn't seem to pick up on patterns or rules just by doing the dictation.

Should I be worried? Or is this normal?

From my experience that's normal. It'll take a lot times of seeing a word before it gets cemented. A lot of times I'll ask "Well, what do you think? how do you think it should be spelled?" Sometimes I'll have them close their eyes and picture it as they spell it. They've caught themselves with certain letters before doing it this way. Like if they forget a vowel and they are visualizing it, they will see that something's missing.

But as far as memorizing a dictation passage, I'm not sure how otherwise you'd do it? I thought they were supposed to short term memorize it?

Yes that's what I thought too. I think she is really doing pretty well. I just didn't know if maybe I was letting her study too much? But she spends maybe a minute or so looking at it, it's not like it takes a long time.

This sounds completely normal, and I don't think you have anything at all to worry about! In fact, I'd venture this is EXACTLY what we want to happen with the dictation process. If she seems 'frozen' in her dictation, just have her attempt the word and move on. She'll probably have to redo the passage the next day, but you can bet she'll remember to carefully study that particular word. If she seems 'frozen' by spelling something in her written work in other subject areas, have her attempt the word with a black marker on a marker board (or on scratch paper with a pencil), and ask herself, "Does this look right?" If not, she can attempt another version. If she's stuck, write it for her in black marker and have her copy it. The more times the brain can see words spelled correctly, the more it will recognize when they 'look right.' This is why it is also important to edit written work as soon as possible, having dc make editing changes looking at a properly written model as they fix it. But back to dictation - dictation is a slow burn, and it takes years of doing it to see steady, but sure, progress. Keep pressing on, and you will see results.

In Christ,
Julie