Back in June we wrote about the Skills Check - a quick, feature-based inventory that works out which spelling patterns your child has mastered and which need work, then builds a focus list automatically. It's had three updates since, all from families actually using it. Here's what's new.
Three ways to take it
The Skills Check started typed-only: your child hears a word, types it, and the scorer marks each spelling pattern it contains, not just right-or-wrong. It now offers the same check on paper (dictate the words, your child writes them down, photograph the sheet to mark it) or Write it (writing directly on the screen with a finger or stylus) - whichever suits how your child already practises. All three feed the exact same scorer and produce the exact same profile and focus list at the end; only how the answer gets to us changes.
It now starts with what's actually tricky
Until recently, every Skills Check began at a fixed graded level - a good general-purpose starting point, but not tailored to your child specifically. It now defaults to your child's own weakest words, drawn straight from their real practice history, with a count you can adjust (5, 10 or 15 words). No history yet, or want to check a specific list instead? It falls back to one of your assigned lists, and only steps back to the graded levels when there genuinely isn't enough to go on. The level picker is still there whenever you want it - it's just no longer the only place to start.
Fixing a real gap: homophones you couldn't hear
A parent testing homophones - their/there, flower/flour - found the "In a sentence" button sometimes wasn't there at all. It turned out to be a real gap: that button only ever worked for the fixed graded levels, which come with a sentence written in advance for every word. A word picked from your child's weakest words or one of your lists never had one, so there was no way to hear it used in context - and a homophone is genuinely unguessable without that.
It's fixed now: "In a sentence" is always available, on every word, from every source. If nothing's pre-written, we generate one on the spot the first time it's needed and reuse it after that - the same approach the rest of the app already takes with AI sentences, so it barely touches your monthly credit allowance. The core check itself - scoring every word and building the focus list - stays exactly as free and instant as before; this only affects one optional listening aid, and only the first time a particular word needs it.
If homophones are a recurring struggle, our Paper practice feature catches the same mix-ups a different way - spotting when a crossed-out word on a marked sheet is itself a real, correctly-spelled word.
How to run one
- Open your child's card and tap 🧭 Skills Check, then pick Paper, Write it, or Type it.
- Choose what to test - weakest words (the new default), one of your lists, or a level.
- Your child hears each word and answers it their usual way.
- Read the profile, and play the focus list it creates.
Same couple of minutes, same idea - just built from what's actually true about your child's spelling, on whichever screen or piece of paper you already reach for.