For over 30 years I have tried one way after another to help people overcome severe spelling problems by blending sight and sound. Twelve years ago my son, Kelsey, came to work with me and - taking a similarly painstaking, analytical approach to my own - he finally developed a solution to the 'spelling problem' and his RAWS technique forms the foundation of this manual.
A basic tenet of any approach to spelling, however, is that nobody can spell a word if they cannot read it. In fact a word has to be read many times to get the imprint of the word - especially the correct placement of letters - in the mind's eye. Therefore, reading exercises always precede spelling lessons as we progress through the 300 Most Used Words which make up approximately three quarters of all the text we read. Unfortunately, many of these words are spelt non-phonetically and thus pose particular problems for a student with weak image recall. Anyone who has used the reading manual, Toe By Toe, will be aware that I am a firm believer in phonics as the key to helping people with reading difficulties. A child without reading difficulties can get by with very little formal phonics teaching, but a child with reading difficulties will rarely get above a reading age of 9 without an intensive study of phonics.
Words spelt non-phonetically, however, require a Look and Say approach. Please note that my Look and Say methods are not the run of the mill approach this term usually implies. I have called it my SUS3 technique and we have found that a combination of this and Kelsey's RAWS technique produces the optimum results. Complete instructions for these techniques are provided, as and when required, throughout the manual.
Originally, when we were planning the reading exercises in this manual, I was tempted to leave out the simplest phonetic words. Eventually, however, I decided that even the most severely dyslexic child should be able to read some words at the start of the exercises to help boost their self-esteem. Such early 'successes' have an important part to play in terms of encouragement. The short time spent on words like in, at, up …etc will, therefore, be time well spent.
After completing this manual, students will be able to read and spell the 300 Most Used Words. Your students will then have the confidence to put pen to paper without fear of ridicule and - with the assistance of spell checkers - be able to produce legible, coherent writing for whatever purpose. A glance at our Before and After example pages will clearly show the effectiveness of our approach.
Finally, I have to say that children who learn to read and spell without difficulty will be able to manage perfectly well without this book - they simply don't need it. These children will form part of the great majority of the population who don't have to be taught, and manage with just a touch of phonics. In fact they can justifiably claim that they have never been taught how to read and spell.

Keda Cowling, 2002

To help you understand the theory behind our methods, we recommend that you should read the following introduction. However, it is not absolutely necessary. If  you prefer, you may start with 'Who is this book for?'