Akash Vukoti is youngest Spelling bee champion and also one of the youngest YouTuber. At the age of 8, the first thing one will notice about Akash is how brilliant a presenter he is, with effortless voice modulations, confidence and engagement skills. With a barrage of spelling bee awards including the coveted National spelling bee award under his belt, Akash loves making learning videos on his Youtube channel called “Spelling Today”
Akash started uploading videos from last year and currently, he has more than 50 thousand views on his channel till date. And on his personal channel, he has more than 25K subscribers and a total of 5 Million views!
What kind of words can Akash spell?
To give you a preview of the kind of words he likes and spells, try reading his favourite word – pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
When asked how does he do it, he says, “ I just get the letters in my mind as I say them, and they just come out.”
He further explains how knowing the word from different angles like their alternate pronunciations, the language of origin, definition, part of speech, etc. helps him spell these words.
It is quite funny when the 8 years old refers to himself at 3 years old as a kid in his videos. As you progress watching his videos, you realize he is every bit of a goofy kid as well as a spelling wizard.
How Akash got into spellings?
It is rather interesting how a kid that age, got into spellings and developed it to this unbelievable level. At about one and a half years of age, Akash’s uncle gave him a spoon and he spelled it S-P-O-O-N and that’s it, the kid never looked back.
He was always drawn to alphabetical toys since he was a baby and would cry when separated from them. He would arrange the alphabet magnets on the refrigerator and his fascination was further aided by his parents with many alphabetical toys.
By his second birthday, he started recognizing words and forming three letter words. At 2 years 10 months, he was reading kindergarten books and was thorough with the spellings of seasons, colors, shapes, animals, numbers, solar system, months, fruits, musical systems and so on.
Akash lovingly says that his elder sister and parents were fundamental in his learnings. Everywhere he went, there was a new word to learn and a new discovery to be made for him.
Whether in the library or in the grocery store, he’d come across new words that caught his attention and he would incessantly ask until he understood them all. It became a fun game between him and his parents to bring new challenging words that Akash enjoyed a lot.
Achievements so far…
A couple of months before his 3rd birthday, Akash competed in a multi-state spelling bee competition near Washington DC. One has to understand that at that age, not only spelling the correct answer in a multiple-choice question is a challenge but holding a pencil right to be able to circle an answer is a challenge in itself.
Four days prior to the competition, Akash’s mom taught him how to hold a pencil and circle an answer and the kid nailed it. He made it until the final round where he spelled the word ‘Burst’ as ‘Brush’ that deterred him from winning that competition but he got a standing ovation.
After that competition, Akash’s resilience grew stronger. He started participating in many competitions, each one adding to his refreshing confidence and honed skills.
At age 6, he was the first ever 1st grader and the second youngest child ever to have participated in the National spelling bee competition in the states. Hats off to his parents who drove for 13 hours to and fro to get their enthusiastic toddler to compete with children double his age.
Who should follow Spelling Today?
On his channel, he takes you through his entire learning journey of a grand total of 8 years. He explains what kind of toys and tools he uses to hone his skills. His videos are fun and educational.
He touches topics like the sound of alphabets in English, the vowel sounds, alphabets phonics with cool colorful kid toys and markers, and also sings catchy songs of alphabets.
These are all very inspiring and fun learning videos for kids from age 1-9. And the fact that he is a kid doing these videos makes it rather relatable to kids that age. Peer learning is one of the strongest ways of learning and that’s the greatest benefit of learning with Akash. His exuberant spirit and curious ways of learning are a must for children around the world.
