As you watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals in just a few minutes, you'll notice spellers doing a number of different things as they spell their words.
Some write on their arms or hands. Others type on an imaginary keyboard. There are some spellers who appear to be texting their words. Yesterday, one speller even sang her letters.
Margaret Peterson (Speller 83), a semifinalist who did not make the finals, uses sign language as she spells.
"It just helps me to slow down and not say the wrong word," she said. "If I have to spell out all the letters on my hand, I'm not apt to spell as fast."
Margaret, an Indiana seventh grader, said she's been doing it that way since she was nine years old. It's something she picked up on her own.
"By slowing down, I think it through," she said.