There does not appear to be any generally accepted criteria for making an assessment of a student's spelling ability. Tests producing a particular spelling age (such as those designed by Schonell) remain popular and are perhaps useful in providing a rough guide. The nature of the English language, however, means that they are fundamentally flawed. There are simply too many ways of spelling the same sounds and correct 'guessing' will tend to distort test results. They are also open to abuse in the sense that there is a temptation for teachers to 'teach to the test'. Indeed, by using the spelling procedure outlined in this book, it would be possible to artificially inflate a student's spelling age by systematically teaching the relevant words. Of course, this would give a false indication of the student's ability.
Any well-structured, phonetic reading programme (we particularly recommend Toe By Toe and Stride Ahead) will have a positive effect on a student's spelling. Improvements in phonological awareness (such as the role of the mute e) will - to a limited extent - be reflected in a spelling age test. Also, the actual process of reading and word recognition will help to imprint the image of a word - whether phonetically correct or otherwise - in the student's memory. Be that as it may, most people affected by dyslexia will always remain likely to make spelling mistakes because of the large number of phonetically inconsistent words in the English language. In addition, we believe that most dyslexic students do not respond well to methods of teaching spelling which emphasise rules. Even if they can grasp the rule or pattern involved, they simply cannot internalise it and thus continue to produce unconventional combinations of letters to represent the sounds they hear.
It is our belief that such severe spelling problems cannot be solved though they can be circumvented. This book is not designed to increase a student's spelling age as measured in conventional tests. It is far better, in our view, to focus on the Most Used Words in order to boost confidence and reduce the embarrassment factor.

It is frequently the case that students make errors while writing down dictated sentences yet the same errors are not evident when students are able to concentrate on individual words dictated from a list. Effectively the sentences help to highlight weaknesses which may not otherwise be evident. By systematically working on these Most Used Words, we aim to provide students with a store of common words which they can read and spell confidently and accurately. When students write these sentences afterwards this will not only confirm their improvement, but they will also gain a welcome boost to their self-esteem. It seems to us that this is a far better approach than - an often futile - attempt to reach some arbitrary spelling age by the memorisation of lists of difficult, low frequency words.