Getting the Bugs out with PESTS: A Mnemonic Approach to Spelling Sight Words for Students with Learning Disabilities

Difficulties with spelling can impact students' reading acquisition and writing, having a critical impact on overall literacy development. Students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle with spelling. We describe a case study with three elementary-aged students with LD using a mnemonic approach to spelling sight words. Our approach, called PESTS, included acrostics, pictorial representation, and stories. The instruction was applied to key words in daily instruction and compared to a traditional approach to spelling sight words. Each of the students improved his or her spelling, as measured by a standardized spelling test, a developmental spelling test, and a researcher-developed instrument. (Contains 3 figures and 1 footnote.)