“Emma makes the same mistakes for 2 years, despite repetitions…” “Lucas writes ‘he goed to school’, is this normal in 2nd grade?” “How to differentiate dysorthographia from lack of work?” “Should I correct everything in red?”<\/p>\n Dysorthographia is not just being “bad at spelling”. It’s a specific, lasting, massive disorder that resists ordinary learning. Certain errors are typical, recurring, characteristic. Identifying them allows for disorder recognition, fair assessment, and adapted corrections.<\/p>\n This guide explains typical dysorthographia errors, how to assess them, and how to correct without discouraging.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n 1. What is dysorthographia?<\/a><\/p>\n 2. The 3 types of recurring errors<\/a><\/p>\n 3. Assessment grids by type<\/a><\/p>\n 4. Diagnostic dictations<\/a><\/p>\n 5. Adapted corrections<\/a><\/p>\n 6. Compensation strategies<\/a><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Dysorthographia<\/strong>: Specific spelling acquisition disorder.<\/p>\n Characteristics<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Massive errors<\/strong>: 20-50%+ words misspelled (vs 5-10% ordinary difficulties).<\/p>\n Resistance<\/strong>: To learning (repetitions, rules, dictations ineffective).<\/p>\n Duration<\/strong>: Persists for years (vs catch-up delay).<\/p>\n Specificity<\/strong>: Collapsed spelling, other areas preserved (reading sometimes correct, normal intelligence).<\/p>\n Frequent association<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 75-90% dyslexics<\/strong>: Also dysorthographic.<\/p>\n Common origin<\/strong>: Phonology (sound awareness).<\/p>\n But difference<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Dyslexia<\/strong>: Reading + writing.<\/p>\n Dysorthographia<\/strong>: Mainly writing (reading may be correct).<\/p>\n Isolated dysorthographia<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 10-25% cases<\/strong>: Without dyslexia (reads correctly, writes catastrophically).<\/p>\n Ordinary difficulties<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Errors<\/strong>: Decrease with teaching, repetitions, maturation.<\/p>\n Learning<\/strong>: Effective (rules progressively integrated).<\/p>\n Progress<\/strong>: Visible (upward curve).<\/p>\n Dysorthographia<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Errors<\/strong>: Massive, persistent, resistant.<\/p>\n Learning<\/strong>: Ineffective (rules never automated).<\/p>\n Stagnation<\/strong>: Or minimal progress (flat curve).<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Definition<\/strong>: Confusion, omission, inversion of sounds.<\/p>\n Origin<\/strong>: Defective phonology (discrimination, sound segmentation).<\/p>\n Manifestations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Confusions of similar sounds<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Voiced\/voiceless<\/strong>: “pool” \u2192 “bool” (p\/b), “vent” \u2192 “fent” (v\/f), “train” \u2192 “drain” (t\/d).<\/p>\n Nasals<\/strong>: “bon” \u2192 “bom”, “champ” \u2192 “chan”.<\/p>\n Vowels<\/strong>: “a\/e” (“with” \u2192 “wath”), “\u00e9\/\u00e8” (“school” \u2192 “scool”).<\/p>\n Omissions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Letters<\/strong>: “table” \u2192 “tale”, “backpack” \u2192 “bakpack”.<\/p>\n Syllables<\/strong>: “chocolate” \u2192 “cholate”, “computer” \u2192 “compter”.<\/p>\n Inversions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Letters<\/strong>: “tree” \u2192 “tere”, “arm” \u2192 “amr”.<\/p>\n Syllables<\/strong>: “animal” \u2192 “aminal”.<\/p>\n Substitutions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Similar sounds<\/strong>: “house” \u2192 “hose”, “play” \u2192 “pley”.<\/p>\n Student examples<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Leo (1st grade)<\/strong>: Writes “the bot saild on the se” (= “the boat sailed on the sea”) – confusions v\/g, a\/ai, letter omissions.<\/p>\n Emma (2nd grade)<\/strong>: Writes “he had eated a domme” (= “he had eaten an apple”) – confusions \u00e9\/ai, b\/p, silent letter omissions.<\/p>\n Frequency<\/strong>: 40-60% dysorthographia errors.<\/p>\n Definition<\/strong>: Spelling of irregular words, silent letters.<\/p>\n Origin<\/strong>: Defective visual orthographic memory.<\/p>\n Manifestations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Phonetic spelling<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Frequent words<\/strong>: “with” \u2192 “wif”, “because” \u2192 “becuz”, “always” \u2192 “alwayz”.<\/p>\n Silent letters<\/strong>: “night” \u2192 “nite”, “could” \u2192 “cood”, “time” \u2192 “tim”.<\/p>\n Doublings<\/strong>: “running” \u2192 “runing”, “apple” \u2192 “aple”.<\/p>\n Homophones<\/strong>:<\/p>\n to\/too\/two<\/strong>: “I want too go” (= “I want to go”).<\/p>\n there\/their\/they’re<\/strong>: “Their going” (= “They’re going”).<\/p>\n your\/you’re<\/strong>: “Your late” (= “You’re late”).<\/p>\n Irregular words<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Exceptions<\/strong>: “said” \u2192 “sed”, “friend” \u2192 “frend”, “enough” \u2192 “enuff”.<\/p>\n Student examples<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Tom (3rd grade)<\/strong>: Writes “he went too the forrest wif his dog” (= “he went to the forest with his dog”) – all phonetic, no word spelled correctly.<\/p>\n Chloe (4th grade)<\/strong>: Writes “the cat and the dog is in the garden” (= “the cat and the dog are in the garden”) – systematic homophone confusions.<\/p>\n Frequency<\/strong>: 30-40% dysorthographia errors.<\/p>\n Definition<\/strong>: Agreements, conjugations, morphology.<\/p>\n Origin<\/strong>: Working memory, defective automation.<\/p>\n Manifestations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Subject-verb agreement<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Plural<\/strong>: “the children plays” (= “the children play”).<\/p>\n Person<\/strong>: “I plays” (= “I play”).<\/p>\n Noun-adjective agreement<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Gender<\/strong>: “a beautiful castle” \u2192 correct in English (no gender agreement).<\/p>\n Number<\/strong>: “the black cats” \u2192 “the black cat” (missing plural).<\/p>\n Past participle agreement<\/strong>:<\/p>\n With auxiliary<\/strong>: “they have went” (= “they have gone”).<\/p>\n Conjugations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Endings<\/strong>: “he eat” \u2192 “he eated”, “they has eaten” \u2192 “they have ate”.<\/p>\n Tenses<\/strong>: Mixing (past\/present\/future).<\/p>\n Student examples<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Lucas (2nd grade)<\/strong>: Writes “the girls plays in the yard, they is happy” – no agreement (plural, gender).<\/p>\n Sophie (3rd grade)<\/strong>: Writes “yesterday, I goes to the park and I have play” – mixed tenses, wrong endings.<\/p>\n Frequency<\/strong>: 20-30% dysorthographia errors.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Student production<\/strong>: Dictation, free writing.<\/p>\n Analyze<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Score<\/strong>: Number phonetic errors \/ total words.<\/p>\n Interpretation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n <5%<\/strong>: Normal.<\/p>\n 5-15%<\/strong>: Phonological difficulties (strengthen phonological awareness).<\/p>\n >15%<\/strong>: Probable phonetic dysorthographia (speech therapy assessment).<\/p>\n Student production<\/strong>: Dictation of irregular, frequent words.<\/p>\n Analyze<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Score<\/strong>: Number lexical errors \/ irregular words dictated.<\/p>\n Interpretation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n <10%<\/strong>: Normal.<\/p>\n 10-30%<\/strong>: Visual memorization difficulties (strengthen).<\/p>\n >30%<\/strong>: Probable lexical dysorthographia (assessment).<\/p>\n Student production<\/strong>: Short writing.<\/p>\n Analyze<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Score<\/strong>: Number grammatical errors \/ expected agreements.<\/p>\n Interpretation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n <15%<\/strong>: Normal (progressive learning).<\/p>\n 15-40%<\/strong>: Grammatical difficulties (review rules, exercises).<\/p>\n >40%<\/strong>: Probable grammatical dysorthographia (assessment).<\/p>\n Cumulative<\/strong>: 3 error types.<\/p>\n If<\/strong>:<\/p>\n 2+ types<\/strong>: >threshold = Probable dysorthographia.<\/p>\n 1 type<\/strong>: >high threshold (e.g.: 30% phonetic errors) = Specific dysorthographia.<\/p>\n Resistance<\/strong>: Errors persist after intensive teaching (8-12 weeks) = Confirms dysorthographia.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Dictation<\/strong>: Not graded assessment, but diagnostic tool.<\/p>\n Objective<\/strong>: Identify error types, dysorthographia profile.<\/p>\n Frequency<\/strong>: 2-3x\/year (beginning, middle, end of year).<\/p>\n No grade<\/strong>: Qualitative analysis (vs punishment).<\/p>\n Content<\/strong>: Simple, regular words (direct grapheme-phoneme correspondence).<\/p>\n Example<\/strong>:<\/p>\n “Dad has a bike. Lola reads. The cat flies. He drank milk.”<\/em><\/p>\n Target<\/strong>: Phonetic errors (confusions, omissions, inversions).<\/p>\n Analysis<\/strong>:<\/p>\n “dad” \u2192 “bad”<\/strong>: Confusion d\/b.<\/p>\n “bike” \u2192 “bke”<\/strong>: Omission “i”.<\/p>\n “flies” \u2192 “flys”<\/strong>: Confusion ie\/y.<\/p>\n Interpretation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Massive errors<\/strong>: Probable phonetic dysorthographia.<\/p>\n![\"DYNSEO](\"https:\/\/www.dynseo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Troubles-dys-\u00e0-l\u00e9c\u2026-Anglais.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/p>\nTable of Contents<\/h2>\n
What is dysorthographia? {#definition}<\/h2>\n
Definition<\/h3>\n
Link to dyslexia<\/h3>\n
Distinguishing dysorthographia vs ordinary difficulties<\/h3>\n
The 3 types of recurring errors {#types-erreurs}<\/h2>\n
1. Phonetic errors<\/h3>\n
2. Lexical errors<\/h3>\n
3. Grammatical errors<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/p>\nAssessment grids by type {#evaluation}<\/h2>\n
Phonetic errors grid<\/h3>\n
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Lexical errors grid<\/h3>\n
Grammatical errors grid<\/h3>\n
Overall dysorthographia grid<\/h3>\n
Diagnostic dictations {#dictees}<\/h2>\n
Principle<\/h3>\n
Phonetic dictation (K-1st grade)<\/h3>\n