As we are being inundated with product marketing this time of year (particularly toys and child-directed items), I wanted to share one of my parenting pet peeves—it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to when my children were small beginning readers and spellers, but I still do NOT like it when companies misspell the names of the products or marketing materials on purpose—especially with items that are directed at children.
As a mother of young kids, I remember that my children learned a great deal about reading and letters from reading street signs, looking at cereal boxes, and picking things up from other every day places where letters and words appeared. When companies try to come up with cute misspellings of words in order to market their products (or use a font that writes letters backwards), I think it is confusing to beginning readers and sends a troublesome message about language.
Phonetic spellings, made-up words and other marketing ploys may seem sharp and snazzy from a sales point of view, but on products geared toward young children, I think it can be considered irresponsible. I suppose I am being a bit of a grump and a “spelling stickler” but I think learning to read and spell can be challenging enough for young kids without a borage of confusing misspellings and errors in their faces on a regular basis. As kids get older, they can differentiate (usually) between misspellings, made-up words and other marketing ploys—but as young ones, I think it just makes learning to read and spell harder.
So if I was to be made queen of the world for a day, I would definitely want to get rid of all the misspellings, backwards font or lettering, made up words and other marketing gimmicks that companies use to market toys and products to children.
Also: Can You Really HELP With Homework?
See also the Education Blog