Syllabicate. that’s the easiest way to learn any word. Of course it’s nothing short of memorizing, but there’s no choice. Try to divide the words into syllables that would make it manageable for your son. Example: Delicious -De-li-cious – /Du-li-shus/. It would also help him distinguish between the specific Vowel and Consonant sounds or any “Shwa” sounds that needs to be focused on. This is very effective for any word of different levels of difficulty or different lengths. The most important thing is your son is focused and you can also “analogize”. relate each syllable or even the whole word to a sound or idea that your son already knows, that would make it less difficult for him to remember. Hope this helps. GOODLUCK!

My favorite way to learn how to spell when I was in elementary school was the pyramid method.

You start with the first letter, then drop a line, then the first and the second, drop a another, first second and third.

EX:

d

de

del

deli

delic

delici

delicio

deliciou

delicious

It made things so much easier.

Although this may take a while, I find that if you need to learn something quick you turn it into a song!!

Everyone can remember song lyrics, it will help it sink in.

Hope this helps.

http://www.learninghaven.com/la/spelling/

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0903395.html

http://gardenofpraise.com/spell1.htm

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6192

These sites all have spelling tricks/tips. If you search yahoo for “spelling tips” or “spelling tricks” or “spelling vowels”

you should be able to find lots of things to help.