It can be tricky to know exactly how and when to start teaching the letter sounds. The “when” is not as important as the “how.” You can start teaching the letter names and sounds as young as 2 years old, basically once kids begin speaking. However, it’s not necessary to start that early either. It is a very personal choice for each family. Some kids will be more eager than others, some kids will catch on really quickly, others may need some more time. You know your child best. A good rule of thumb is to aim for kids to know at least half the letters upon entering Kindergarten.
The How
The how of teaching the letter sounds is the most important part here. There are proven ways to teach the letters that we know result in the best retention. We want to start with knowledge of the letter names. We want to teach letter sounds at the same time or after we teach the letter names. For more info on this, check out last week’s blog post. We also want to start with just teaching one sound per letter. There are letters that make multiple sounds and letter sounds may change based on where the letter is in a word or other letters surrounding it. This is too much information when we are first starting letter sounds. So, we begin with one sound per letter and then we build onto that later. The goal is to begin reading CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) words first so this is all the info we initially need to teach.
*There is one letter that is an exception to this rule, the X. The X is special because it actually makes two sounds on it’s own, /k/ /s/. We want to teach that this letter makes two sounds back to back right away.*
How to introduce the letter sounds
We want to tie the letter sounds back to the letter name. So, we show a child the letter (T, for example). We have them say the name, keyword, and then sound, “T, tiger, /t/.” It’s important to use both the name and sound. Letter names are the only stable part of a letter, the sounds change so the letter name is like an anchor in our brain to be able to learn multiple sound patterns.
Ensuring we are saying the sounds correctly
When first introducing the sounds it’s important to note the mouth formation so we can ensure kids are pronouncing it properly. It is a hard habit to break if students begin pronouncing the sounds incorrectly. You can have them look at your mouth while they say it, and look in a mirror when they say it to be sure it matches. My letter/sound cards have a deck with the mouth formation included!
Another common occurrence when teaching the sounds is adding what we call the schwa onto the sound of a letter. The schwa is basically a lazy vowel sound, /uh/. For example, when we teach the letter B we might say the sound it spells is /buh/ we want to cut off the /uh/ and just say /b/. If we add the /uh/ onto the end students struggle later on to blend and segment words because they are saying an extra sound. So, they might spell ‘bed’ like this, ‘bued’ because they are hearing an extra sound on the end of the b. I used to do this all the time early in my career and even catch myself still doing it occasionally. So, be careful! It is easy to forget.
How often and how to practice
We want to practice letter sounds over and over again until they are mastered! I usually teach about 3 letter sounds at a time, but this is very personal to each child. Some kids may be able to learn 5 letter sounds at a time, and others may do better with 1 sound at a time. Neither of these are better than the other, the important thing is they are learning. Consistency is key here! If you introduce a letter sound you need to keep practicing it daily going forward, just 5-10 minutes per day is enough! The important thing is consistency.
Making it multisensory (using more than one sense while practicing it) will also help with retaining the sounds more quickly. So, writing the letter in sand and then saying the sound, coming up with a motion to match the sound, or playing a game of hopscotch with the letters where you have to say the sound land on are all great ways to make it multi-sensory. Multi-sensory also means more fun!! One of my favorite activities is to say the letter sound and then have the child write it. When they can do this we know they are really making the connection between the letter and the sound! Try to take games or activities you already do regularly and incorporate the sounds into them. Simple is almost always better. It doesn’t have to be a huge burden to plan!
0 Comments