Comments: I have an ESL student entering grade 4. His reading comprehension seems at or above grade level, but his spelling needs work. I didn't have immediate concerns about his decoding ability but gave him the PG tests anyway and found that adjacent consonants give him trouble.

Blending: 11/15, couldn't blend CCVC words.

Segmentation: 6/12, with 6/6 on CVC but 0/6 on CCVC and CVCC words. "Glues" adjacent consonants together. E.g. segments "frog" as "fr" "r" "o" "g".
and segments "black" as "bl" "l" "a" "ck"

Auditory processing: 8/10. Glued together adjacent consonants on CCVC words again. Said "stop" without the "s" was "op". Said "flag" without the "f" was "ag."


I don't yet know if he habitually misspells words with adjacent consonants. The spelling errors seem to involve many different patterns.

Is there a link between poor spelling and inability to segment adjacent consonants?

Might working on segmenting CCVC and CVCC words help his spelling in general, or only with spelling errors involving words with adjacent consonants?

Thanks for any insights!

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