Spelling is a serious problem for so many and I think not helped by our language. There are so many rules and then there are exceptions. Teaching kids to spell is so difficult. I was pretty useless as a kid and for many years carried a dictionary. One of my sons was showing similar tendencies but because he could read, was wizzy at maths and science and had a great general knowledge the school overlooked it. However he was at times a very bad tempered child with I would say a low self esteem and the day the flipping infant school teacher stood at the top of the steps and called to me 'We haven't learnt our spellings again this week have we Mrs K' in front of all the other parents really got to me and I felt so sad for my son who tried so hard and then had to contend with this cow acting in a dreadful manner. I took him for assessment at the Dyslexia Institute who were fantastic and found he had a very high IQ, over 140 but various other problems such as a poor short term memory and an inability to concentrate for long if there was noise around him. A medical test found he could hear very loudly and so voices in the room and general noise were amplified and uncomfortable. So all of this meant he was at a disadvantage when trying to write. Once I had all this information the junior school were pretty good and he had extra help, if he needed to leave the room to work quietly he was allowed to. At that point I noticed an improvement in his temper, self esteem and attitude to school. He went on to get 3 good A levels in maths, further maths and art, Subjects dyslexic kids with high IQ's often excel at. Now at uni he continues to get help but of course now he uses a computer with spell checkers, dicta-phones etc he manages well.
So if you think your kid is having problems get help, sadly it doesn't always come from the school and I had to pay for the help we got at the Institute but it was money well spent. There are loads of people on this forum with difficulties in spelling and it is such a shame they were not helped when at school. I think the ones who are clever tend to get overlooked as they struggle to manage. The others don't manage and either get some help or just drop out. I think it's OK to make mistakes here and in general day to day life, that motorbike chap got his message across. However when it comes to your job or writing important letters, people are going to judge you.