My three children all read very well even though reading aloud is not their favorite way of reading. Kids who need more brainfood may also need a different way of learning. Sometimes being very quick to process some aspects of life makes it very hard to slow down to process others. Being impatient with long multisyllabic words may be one of their challenges even if they could spell correctly a targeted spelling word such as "paleontologist." Spelling challenge words is not difficult when they can memorize for a test, and if they use a photographic method of learning spelling, they can even spell them correctly in reverse order. Some kids who are stealth dyslexics do this all the time and you often can't tell that they are dyslexic. But try some nonsense words (but not "superfragilisticexpialidocious" as that is a word they could have seen!!) that they have never heard or seen before and have them try to guess the spelling. If they cannot, they could be stealth dyslexics.
In any case, I came across this Spell-A-Cadabra "magic spelling" tool ... it captures what I have been doing with my kids with long multisyllabic words when I use my fingers to count the syllables in order to slow down each sound and spell each separately. It also helps with learning Greek and Latin root words if you want to make it more connecting fun. It will also help with generative spelling skills once they learn that "tion" sounds like "shion" or "shun" regularly.
Turns out someone had already marketed a kit just the way I have always used. See this link if interested and it is a great discount only for the next few days.
http://a6060c1a-0c9e-11e0-
Two of these spelling aids for just $8. Expires in a few days, though.
