This is part of the Companion for your Spelling Journey series (learn more here). This is the 4th post of the Journey to Open Communication sub-newsletter. The main audience for this is newer spelling teams who have not yet reached open communication.
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Introduction & Key Points
Many of us have been socialized to fear mistakes. I’ve seen it manifested in my own work as a practitioner, and I honestly can’t think of a single CRP I’ve trained who hasn’t demonstrated it. There are many perfectly rational, understandable reasons for this - it’s a mindset that will take time, practice, and mindfulness to unlearn.
When we let the fear of mistakes intrude upon our spelling, it can do the following:
Inject a sense of pressure into the sessions (remember, we want to create a safe space for spelling, including reducing pressure as much as possible!)
Lead us toward improper practice because we’re afraid the speller will poke the wrong letter (e.g., moving the board, jumping in with directional prompts when we should be fading them away, etc.)
Stop us from seeing the valuable learning opportunity that mistakes offer because we are so caught up in anticipating, trying to avoid, and lamenting the mistakes!
So, in this post, I’ll offer some pointers for shifting this mindset, including wise words from a speller. Embracing mistakes is one of the most important things a spelling team can do. It’s one of the main things I coach new CRP-speller teams in doing!
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