Say the word “there” out loud. Now say “their.” You made the same sound twice. Nothing in that sound tells you which spelling you meant. Your child sounds out every word and still writes “there” for “their.” If that puzzles you, it should. The sounding out did its job. This word needs a different one.
Common questions from parents
Why does my child write “there” when they mean “their”?
Should we stop phonics and have my child memorize words instead?
Is my child a visual learner if sounding out fails on these words?
Does mixing up homophones mean my child has a learning difficulty?
Say “there.” Now say “their.” Same sound. That is why a child who sounds out every word still spells it wrong. The fix is a second skill, not less phonics.
Why won’t sounding out spell “their”?
There are two ways to spell a word. The first is the sound route. Your child hears the sounds and writes letters for them. That works for regular words. It is also the only thing that works for a brand new word.
The second is the word route. Your child pulls up the stored spelling of that one word. It is the only thing that works when the sound will not tell you. Words that sound the same but are spelled differently are called homophones. Think of their, there and they’re. Or to, too and two. Or right and write. No skill with sounds picks the right one. The letters have to be stored.
That is a fact about English, not a fact about your child. Phonics is necessary. It was never sufficient. And none of this means less phonics. The sound route does most of the spelling work. This piece is about the spot where it stops. Does your child read well and spell poorly? Here is why reading and spelling come apart.
Your child was taught one route and asked to use two.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Did phonics fail my child, or did my child miss something?
To us, it is neither. A large study backs the two routes up. Niolaki and colleagues (2023) looked at 641 schoolchildren in the UK. They measured how close each spelling came to the whole word. They also measured how close it came sound by sound. The whole-word measure matched spelling accuracy better, in every year group. The authors found that children use both routes for every kind of word.
Adults who lost the word route later in life point the same way. Rapcsak and colleagues (2007) studied them. Those adults lost a route they once had. A child is still building it. So we treat that work as support, not as proof about children.
This is not about two kinds of child, either. There is no “sound speller” and “picture speller” here. Every speller uses both routes. If a page came home marked “careless,” we read it differently. To us, that mark does not look like carelessness. It looks like a word whose letters were never stored. Our view is that this is a gap in the teaching. The sound route gets taught step by step. The word route gets assumed. Your child was taught one route and asked to use two.
Key takeaways
- Two routes to every spelling: Children sound words out and also recall stored spellings of whole words.
- Homophones need stored letters: Their and there sound identical, so only a remembered spelling gets it right.
- Practice the word route: Writing from memory, then checking, beat copying in three small experiments.
How do I help my child store the right letters?
Teach the letters of the word directly. Guessing is not the answer, and neither is sounding it out harder. The word route is its own job, so give it its own practice. Keep the phonics going too. Your child still needs it for every new word.
One habit points the right way. Write from memory, then check. Jones and colleagues (2016) ran three small experiments, with 14, 16 and 12 children. Some children wrote words from memory and then fixed them. Others copied. In all three, writing from memory came out ahead. The groups were small. So the direction holds. How big the gain is stays an open question.
Try this tonight.
- Pick two homophones your child mixes up, like their and there.
- Look at one word together. Say what it means.
- Cover it. Your child writes it from memory.
- Uncover it. Check each letter. Fix any that are off.
- Do the same with the other word. Come back to both the next day.
We walk through it in spell from memory, then check. For more mixed-up pairs, see this guide to misused English words.
No skill with sounds picks the right one. The letters have to be stored.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
Every child deserves to be taught both routes to a word. Leave the second one to chance, and the child gets called careless for it. That is the old habit of waiting to see if it sorts itself out. You do not have to wait. You saw the pattern first. Trust that. The free screener asks what you see at home. It gives you a starting point. Start with the free dysgraphia screener.
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Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
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A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
