The Experience of Using Cross Crawls to Help my Son in his First English Spelling Test
Amy W.M. Choi
When my elder son Yu Yat was in the first month of his first primary school year, he was given the challenge of his first English spelling test in his whole life. At the time, he just turned six. Because we sent him to a kindergarten with no examination and test, he had absolutely no idea of what a 鋳est?meant and how he was expected to behave before and during a test. Also, because Cantonese was what he spoke at home and kindergarten, he was basically very green as far as English and spelling skills are concerned. In this first English spelling test, he was expected to know how to spell 団ne?to 鋳en? It was a challenge to him, and it turned out to be a challenge for me, too!
A few days before the test, my son and I spent about half an hour together studying for the test. The first question he asked me was 巣hat is meant by a test?? I then explained to him that a test is a chance for him to show what he knew and what he didn«æ know. Like many parents, I used many traditional ways of helping him to learn to spell these words ?by rote drilling, by seeing the words and then covering them up, by singing songs, by writing them, etc.
After some time, he began to manage to spell some words with three letters of the alphabet. He was slowly getting the spelling of words like 団ne? 鋳wo?and 鋳en? After some more practices, he also managed to spell the beginning of the words with four or five letters of the alphabets. For example, he had learnt that 対ive?would start with 対i?and the word ¹Äine?would start with ¹Äi? However, for some reason, he was really stuck with the word 昼even? No matter how many times we practised, even repeated drilling on the following day, he could only barely remember anything about that word ?not even a single letter.
At some point during the second study session, I asked if he would like to do some simple Cross Crawls for his spelling test. As he had done the movement before, he was automatic and coordinated with it ?using left arm touching his right knee, and right arm touching his left knee. Then, I asked him to do some Cross Crawls while spelling the word seven. Then, he turned totally uncoordinated and homolateral ?moving the arm and leg of the same side at a time. Obviously, this task was challenging for him ?he had to stop and think about the spelling and the movement. After about a minute of repetitions, the movement became a bit more automatic, but obviously he was still only trying. He could only manage to remember part but not the whole word. I decided to let that be and just wish him good luck in his first spelling test.
About a week later, the result came out. I was shocked to see that he got a ??in his first spelling test! On the test paper, the teacher wrote in red, 浅e cheated.? Desperate and disappointed, I raised my voice and asked 巣hat happened? Did you look at your book during the spelling test?? He stared at me, a bit afraid and puzzled, and said 装es, I took out my book because I didn«æ know how to spell 昼even? But I didn«æ know I was not allowed to look at my book.? Well, that was a lesson for me ?I should have explained to him the rule of the game first! Then, I asked 窃o you know how to spell that word now?? Rolling his eyes up and down, he said slowly, 昼-e-v-e-n钙even.?lt;/p>
Almost three years had gone by and he is now almost nine years old. With further guidance from his teachers and me and his father, and some further balances from us, he has now turned high gear for his English spelling tests. Seldom do I have to worry about when he will have another spelling test and what the content of the test will be. He usually gets nine or ten out of ten even with no need for study or revision. Now, he has really got it.
