"Teach me how to map, and I’ll find my way!"
How I Created the Spelling Maps
In the third year of business at Terri's Consign Design, I realized this would get big. I had to send instructions to the managers, tell stories to the newspapers, and sign building leases. I couldn’t keep faking my reading anymore. So, I went to ASU, where they had a program for people with learning disabilities. They started by showing me the same stuff I saw in school, just going slower. I finally said, "This doesn’t work. Give me all the rules for the vowels and consonants."
I took all the rules home, laid them out on my living room floor, and organized them into piles. I kept working with this big pile of letters on my floor until one day, I saw a vision—a map. I realized they all had one thing in common: only three rules, not 273. I created a symbol for each rule: the circle represented the sound of the letter, the square was the rule for that letter, and the squiggly line was the exception to the rule.
"C" was the first page I did, and I drew it on a map. It was easy; it had only two basic sounds—a hard sound and a soft sound. Putting an A, O, or U behind the "C" was a hard sound. If you put an E, I, or Y, it was a soft sound. There were no other exceptions. Then I did the map for "G," which was almost the same except for when "G" was followed by an E or I; it sometimes remained a hard sound, making it an exception to the rule. The best part was I could close my eyes and see the map in my mind.
I took the maps back to Dr. McCoy at ASU. She was shocked—it worked. She tested me, and I was learning how to spell and read. She helped me work on more maps until we had them all. This wasn’t a cure for dyslexia; unfortunately, learning disabilities are already programmed in us. But it was how I learned to work with the disability. With the maps, we all have three ways of learning: audio, visual, and physical. With only three simple rules, not 273, I could quickly put those in my mind.
I review them every couple of months in only about 23 minutes to keep them fresh in my mind. I see each map and review it, so it stays with me when I’m spelling. Physically, I use my finger to go over the maps, drawing them repeatedly—that’s the physical part.
My favorite part is that I wanted something small and easy to carry on my phone forever. I never have a problem with spelling or reading rules because they are always with me. There are only 28 maps, and they’re small and easy to read. I can put them on my phone, so wherever I go, I have my maps with me.
The Spelling Map is Your First Step to Learning to Spell and Read