The Dyslexia Duo: Pete Bowers on Structured Word Inquiry: Making English Spelling Make Sense for Dyslexic Learners
Melissa Dean and Aimee Rodenroth of the Dyslexia Duo podcast interview Pete Bowers, a former grades 3–6 teacher who began using Real Spelling in 2001 and later developed work in Structured Word Inquiry (SWI) through graduate study with John Kirby in Kingston, Ontario. Bowers describes his own history as a slow reader and poor speller and explains how SWI transformed his understanding by teaching English orthography as an ordered system that links spelling with meaning and pronunciation, rather than relying on memorization or syllabification strategies that can be misleading and shame-inducing for struggling students. Using examples such as “real/really/reality,” “act/actor/acting/action,” and “maybe” as “may + be,” he argues that many spelling questions cannot be solved through phonology alone and that word matrices and word sums provide essential “combinatorial guardrails” and enable falsification of common misconceptions such as the “TION suffix” and a “ti digraph” in words like “action” and “question.” He discusses statistical learning, orthographic memory challenges associated with dyslexia, loanwords (e.g., French spellings), and how spelling-meaning correspondences can relieve shame and improve motivation. Bowers recommends beginning accurate orthographic concepts early (including with kindergarten), using techniques like spelling out orthography and word-family inquiry to build automatic, integrated representations of spelling, meaning, and pronunciation. The episode concludes with resources from Dr. Bowers (websites, YouTube, TEDx talk, courses, and a free weekly SWI digital drop-in) and guidance on integrating SWI with existing structured literacy/Orton-Gillingham programs by adding explanations that reflect how the writing system works.
00:42 Meet Pete Bowers: from struggling speller to Structured Word Inquiry
03:07 Reading vs spelling: why production is harder than recognition
04:17 The “really” breakthrough: matrices, word sums, and ending spelling shame
11:50 Loanwords & orthographic memory: why “exceptions” aren’t really exceptions
18:36 SWI isn’t just morphology: teaching the full orthography system
21:56 Statistical learning, attention, and the myth of the “TION suffix”
29:20 Hands-on demo: ACT → actor/acting/action (falsifying the “ti” digraph)
36:19 Combinatorial guardrails: graphemes, morphemes, and why T can say /sh/
50:57 When to start SWI: building an accurate schema from the very beginning
56:44 Classroom-friendly decodables: Tumbleweed’s distraction-free design
57:04 Sponsor spotlight: Discovery Dyslexia Services therapy, evaluations & advocacy
58:04 From “replay” to word meaning: spotlighting morphemes, suffixes & etymology
01:00:49 The “Play” word-family game: tapping graphemes and building a base
01:08:04 Homophones aren’t “crazy”: why meaning drives spelling consistency
01:09:44 Why two cues aren’t enough: triangulating spelling with meaning (and the “maybe” story)
01:14:05 When to teach word origins: Wonder Wall questions & the calculus analogy
01:17:40 Live word investigation: breaking down CONVENIENCE with connecting vowel letters
01:28:18 Teacher takeaways: schema shift, does/do, and SWI resources to keep learning
01:37:44 Integrating SWI with OG programs: “spell it out” to trigger self-correction
01:43:45 Final challenge: EXORBITANT, orbit as the base, and ending shame in learning
01:50:32 Wrap-up
Ireland