Lots of people maintain that texting heralds the demise of accurate spelling. There is an argument to be made for this, especially with text speak like c u l8r. It can also be argued that a language is constantly evolving and that if Shakespeare were alive know he would probably be shocked at how much things have changed since his day.

I’m not a huge fan of text speak but I do love predicative text. Granted it has gotten a lot of people into trouble (see picture – one of the cleanest examples I could find) but predictive text can help with spelling. I have a great ear for music but when it comes to the sounds of letters within words I am as deaf as a post. When I want to spell a word I always have to write it down and after a few attempts I’ll know its right by the way it looks – I’m a visual speller.

Predictive text forces us to look at the word as we type and it is only when it looks right can we use it. So if someone you know has difficulty with spelling turn on the predictive text on their phone. Kids love to use adults phones so this can be a fun way of keeping them occupied while improving their spelling at the same time and sure if you end up sending a very strange text to someone remember everything is forgiven when it is for educational purposes!