Students with dyslexia often struggle with spelling, particularly with so-called irregular words—words like says, been, and does. Typically, these words are viewed as rule-breakers because their spelling and pronunciation do not seem to match. They are thought to have tricky parts that must be memorized. This rote learning is seen as a necessary supplement to the explicit instruction and practice that occurs in Structured Literacy approaches.

However, these words do not need to be memorized; they follow the same spelling conventions as other words in English. In this article, we will see how structural analysis (morphology) allows us to understand them. This type of analysis reveals integral aspects of spelling that should be part of systematic instruction from the beginning.

Do Some Words Have Irregular Spellings?

Many words commonly described as irregular are not irregular at all; they are simply misunderstood. To understand them, we must recognize their internal structures—their morphology. There is growing awareness that morphology is a critically important aspect of literacy. However, in an effort to make the learning process more manageable for students, especially those with dyslexia, morphology is often ignored in the early years of instruction. Unfortunately, the learning process does not become easier for anyone when we attempt to steer clear of morphology.

When we disregard the structure of words like says, been, and does, we miss the fact that they are all complex—composed of more than one written morphological element or structural unit.

If we stop to think about it, we see this immediately in the word says, which is spelled by combining the elements <say> and <-s>. (In this article, angle brackets < > are used to refer to a written, spelled form of a word. For example, <says> refers to the written word spelled S  AY  S.) The structural analysis of <says> can be shown using an algorithm from orthographic linguistics—a word sum: <says ➞ say + s>.

Given this analysis, can we call the spelling <says> irregular? Compare how these words are spelled:
I walk; he walks: <walk + s ➞ walks>

I run; he runs: <run + s ➞ runs>

You play; she plays: <play + s ➞ plays>

You say; she says: <say + s ➞ says>

The structural pattern in all these present-tense third-person singular verbs is the same. And the same pattern is found in the spelling of the words goes and does, which are formed from the base elements <go> and <do> combined with the suffix <-es>. An <-es> is a form of the suffix <-s> that is used in specific situations. Traditionally, one of those situations is when this suffix follows a word ending in a single <o>.

Sue Scibetta Hegland is an author and frequent speaker on topics related to spelling. She provides information to support explicit, systematic instruction in written English, including the importance of morphology and the influences of etymology. Her early professional experience was in experimental research and instructional design, but her focus shifted in 2003 when she learned that one of her children is dyslexic. Trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach, she has served on the Board of Directors for the Upper Midwest Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, and on the Board of Education for the Brandon Valley School District. She is currently Editor-in-Chief for the International Dyslexia Association’s Fact Sheet publications and is the author of the website LearningAboutSpelling.com. Her new book on spelling will be released this fall.

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is grateful to IDA’s Fact Sheet Editorial Board and Structured Literacy Task Force and the Communications and Graphics Teams at Wilson Language Training who collaborated to create this infographic. You can download a copy from the Dyslexia Digital Library at DyslexiaLibrary.org.

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties accurately and fluently reading words and spelling. Today the most widely accepted theory is that people with dyslexia have problems processing sounds within words and connecting these sounds to letters. But other theories have been proposed over the years, with the most popular focusing on vision. One of the most common has been that people with dyslexia do not see letters as typical readers do. Instead, the letters might appear reversed or move around when they attempt to read. At one point, some people with dyslexia were given colored overlays or glasses with tinted lenses to remediate the problem, an approach whose effectiveness has been disproven by research. (For a detailed review of this approach, please read the article “Behavioral Optometry and Irlen Lenses to Resolve Reading Problems” in the Winter 2020 issue of Perspectives on Language and Literacy.)

Based on visual theories of dyslexia, dyslexia-specific fonts have emerged as a potential tool to help students with dyslexia read better. Parents and educators often ask us about these fonts and how well they work.

Here are the most common questions we receive:

1. Why might dyslexia-specific fonts matter?
2. What features of dyslexia-specific fonts make them different from other fonts?
3. Are dyslexia-specific fonts an effective accommodation for students with dyslexia?

Of course, No. 3 is the burning question and the short answer is no. But understanding the “why” and the “what” behind dyslexia-specific fonts helps to put “how effective” in context. We answered these questions by reviewing the information made available on developers’ websites and studies of dyslexia-specific fonts published in peer-reviewed journals (see Table 1).

1. Why might dyslexia-specific fonts matter?

All of this matters because parents and teachers have limited time, and schools have limited budgets and resources. They need accommodations and materials that are effective for students with dyslexia. When parents and teachers spend time and money on ineffective accommodations and materials, they take those resources away from other materials and methods that could be effective. So, if there are effective solutions that are low cost and easy to implement, we need to know about them and support their use.

Pamela R. Shewalter is a Literacy Studies Ph.D. student at Middle Tennessee State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Special Education and an MA in Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. Her research interests are best practices for interventions and accommodations, generalization of intervention methods, and testing validity for students with reading disabilities.

Timothy N. Odegard, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and holds the Katherine Davis Murfree Chair of Excellence in Dyslexic Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. He also leads the efforts of the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Dyslexia. Before joining the faculty at MTSU, Tim served on the faculty at the University of Texas Arlington and UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. In addition to being a research scientist, Tim is a reading therapist, having completed a two-year dyslexia specialist training program at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas during his NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship.

Nancy Chapel Eberhardt is currently an educational consultant and author. She has experience as a special education teacher, administrator, and professional development provider. Nancy contributed as author and co-author to the development of the literacy intervention curriculum LANGUAGE! More recently she collaborated with Margie Gillis to develop the Literacy How Professional Learning Series. Nancy is the co-author of Sortegories 3.0, a web-based app that provides practice with decoding, vocabulary, and syntax to improve decoding, reading comprehension, and fluency. She serves as a member of IDA’s Perspectives and The Examiner editorial boards.