First letters to teach

Literacy Instruction for Individuals with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, and Other Disabilities

What are letter-sound correspondences?

Letter-sound correspondences involve knowledge of

• the sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet
• the letters used to represent the sounds

Top

Why is knowledge of letter-sound correspondences important?

Knowledge of letter-sound correspondences is essential in reading and writing

• In order to read a word:
  • the learner must recognize the letters in the word and associate each letter with its sound
• In order to write or type a word:
  • the learner must break the word into its component sounds and know the letters that represent these sounds.

Knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and phonological awareness skills are the basic building blocks of literacy learning.

These skills are strong predictors of how well students learn to read.

Top

What sequence should be used to teach letter-sound correspondence?

Letter-sound correspondences should be taught one at a time.  As soon as the learner acquires one letter sound correspondence, introduce a new one.

We suggest teaching the letters and sounds in this sequence

• a, m, t, p, o, n, c, d, u, s, g, h, i, f, b, l, e, r, w, k, x, v, y, z, j, q

This sequence was designed to help learners start reading as soon as possible

• Letters that occur frequently in simple words (e.g., a, m, t) are taught first.
• Letters that look similar and have similar sounds (b and d) are separated in the instructional sequence to avoid confusion.
• Short vowels are taught before long vowels.
• Lower case letters are taught first since these occur more frequently than upper case letters.

The sequence is intended as a guideline. Modify the sequence as required to accommodate the learner’s

• prior knowledge
• interests
• hearing

Top

Is it appropriate to teach letter names as well as letter sounds?

Start by teaching the sounds of the letters, not their names.  Knowing the names of letters is not necessary to read or write.  Knowledge of letter names can interfere with successful decoding.

• For example, the learner looks at a word and thinks of the names of the letters instead of the sounds.

Top

Sample goal for instruction in letter-sound correspondences

The learner will

• listen to a target sound presented orally
• identify the letter that represents the sound
• select the appropriate letter from a group of letter cards, an alphabet board, or a keyboard with at least 80% accuracy

Top

Instructional Task

Here is an example of instruction to teach letter-sound correspondences

• The instructor
  • introduces the new letter and its sound
  • shows a card with the letter m and says the sound “mmmm”

After practice with this letter sound, the instructor provides review

• The instructor
  • says a letter sound
• The learner
  • listens to the sound
  • looks at each of the letters provided as response options
  • selects the correct letter
    • from a group of letter cards,
    • from an alphabet board, or
    • from a keyboard.

Top

Instructional Materials

Various materials can be used to teach letter-sound correspondences

• cards with lower case letters
• an alphabet board that includes lower case letters
• a keyboard adapted to include lower case letters

Here is an example of an adapted keyboard that might be used for instruction once a student knows many of the letter-sound correspondences.

The learner must

• listen to the target sound – “mmmm”
• select the letter – m – from the keyboard

Top

Instructional Procedure

The instructor teaches letter-sound correspondences using these procedures:

• Model
  • The instructor demonstrates the letter-sound correspondence for the learner.
• Guided practice
  • The instructor provides scaffolding support or prompting to help the learner match the letter and sound correctly.
  • The instructor gradually fades this support as the learner develops competence.
• Independent practice
  • The learner listens to the target sound and selects the letter independently.
  • The instructor monitors the learner’s responses and provides appropriate feedback.

Top

Student Example

Krista is 8 years old in this video

• Krista has multiple challenges, including a hearing impairment, a visual impairment, and a motor impairment. She also has a tracheostomy.
• We started to work with Krista when she was 8 years old. At that time, she was in a special education class at school and was not receiving literacy instruction.
• She uses sign approximations to communicate with others. She also uses a computer with speech output (a Mercury with Speaking Dynamically Pro software). Because of her hearing impairment, she does best when she receives augmented input (sign and speech).
• This video was taken after 3 weeks of instruction.
• Krista is learning letter-sound correspondences. So far she has been introduced to the letter sounds for m and b
  • Janice is providing instruction; Marissa, a graduate student at Penn State, is learning about literacy instruction and helping to collect data; and Krista’s parents and nurse are watching the session, excited about her progress.
  • Janice
    • provides an array of letter cards as response options
    • says one of the target letter sounds
  • Krista
    • listens to the sound
    • points to the letter that makes the target sound
• After 3 weeks (approximately 3 hours) of instruction, Krista has successfully learned the letter sounds – m and b.
• Over the next months, we introduced the other letter sounds gradually. We also worked on recognition of high interest sight words, decoding skills, and shared reading activities.
• Krista made excellent progress in all activities. Click to learn more about Krista’s success learning literacy skills despite the many challenges she faced.

Top

Pointers

There are a wide range of fonts. These fonts use different forms of letters, especially the letter a.

• Initially use a consistent font in all instructional materials
• Later, as the learner develops competence, introduce variations in font.

Top

Last Updated: February 19, 2019

Proven Order to Teach Letters that Will Get Your Child Reading Faster!

I remember when I just graduated from college and was about to start teaching in my first classroom. It was a Kindergarten teacher position and I was so excited about teaching the alphabet to those little munchkins. I sat down in my classroom looking at the curriculum, scratching my head in sheer confusion that destroyed my week 1 plans as a first year Kindergarten teacher. Wait…you aren’t supposed to teach the alphabet in ABC order?

Nope.

So what order DO you teach the letters of the alphabet in? After reading this post, you will:

• Know why you shouldn’t teach in ABC order
• Understand why the order to teach letters is so important
• Answer the question…uppercase or lowercase?
• Get the exact order to teach letters that will have your child reading faster

This post may contain affiliate links. I only recommend products that I personally use, trust, and love and think you will love too! Using these links provide me with a small commission and help support this blog, but at no extra cost to you. To learn more, read my Policies page.

Why You Don’t Teach the Alphabet in ABC Order

Teaching the alphabet in order puts a big focus on those beginning letters. Those are probably going to be the ones that your child sees and remembers the most since that Alphabet Song is so catchy. =)

Why is that a problem? Some of those beginning letters aren’t the most frequently used letters that your child will encounter in text. Focus on letters that are most common in the beginning sight words your child will learn. Think of the words in, at, it, am, I, etc. Only one of those letters is in the first five letters of the alphabet!

Another reason to avoid teaching the alphabet in order is that research shows that children will recall a letter’s name more often than the sound that it makes (source). This makes it very difficult to start teaching how to decode words because these children aren’t able to recall those letter sounds to eventually blend words together.

Learn about other mistakes you may be making when teaching the alphabet.

Why Should You Care about What Order to Teach Letters?

There is a reason behind what order to teach letters.

You first want to teach the letters that appear most frequently in emergent reader books. This is because you want your child to actually apply what you are teaching them as you are teaching it!

Remember that the whole reason you are teaching your child the alphabet is to help them read. So why wouldn’t you want your child to practice their knowledge of letters by reading simple words in those emergent reader books?

This is also the reason why you want to ensure you are teaching letter names and sounds together. Think about it…they are labeling a symbol with the letter name and learning what it says with the sound. This is just like teaching your child to identify a cow and know that it says “moo”.

Uppercase or Lowercase?

Yes, when it comes to letter recognition, knowing and understanding all 52 letter symbols (both uppercase and lowercase) is important. ⁣
⁣
But if I had to absolutely choose one set to focus on 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵?⁣

LOWERCASE!!
⁣
When you open up a book, any book, what type of letter do you see the most? Lowercase. ⁣
⁣
The ratio between the frequency of uppercase and lowercase letters in a book leaves no question in my mind which type of letter I should spend the majority of my energy on when working with a child.

Where to Start

There is definitely some pre-work that I think is important to introduce before you start diving into the my specific order to teach letters.

Your Child’s Name

First, you want to teach your child the letters in their name. Your child’s name is something very special and important to them…it’s something that is all theirs.

Children have a fascination with their name so learning the letters in their name first is great way to build interest around letters and print.

Your child will love the letters in their name and will start to identify them anywhere they go. Encourage this as much as you can as this is a great sign of their print motivation!

Exposure

Before you start explicitly teaching letters and sounds, you want to be sure that you are providing your child with plenty of exposure to letters and print.

Create a literacy rich environment by having magnetic letters and bathtub letters readily available for play. Hop on that decor trend where letters and words are displayed on walls in your home.

Incorporate letters into your child’s existing play and take the opportunity to talk about letters while your child is playing. This may sound something like, “Did you put the letter T in your car? Where is it going?”

What Order to Teach Letters

I have a specific order that I teach letters in and it is a combination of two methods: the SATPIN method and the IMSE method.

Both methods are research-based and have good reasoning behind the orders. I’ve found that this combination has been magical with the students and families I work with. Let’s get started and learn that magic order to teach letters!

s-a-t-p-i-n

First, start with s, a, t, p, i, n. This combination of letters is perfect for introducing letter names and sounds and then actually APPLYING what you are teaching.

These letters also make up the most frequent words that are found in emerging readers.

This way, when your child starts to apply their knowledge of letters and sounds, they will be able to start reading simple words more quickly…that’s the whole point!

c-o-d-g-m-k

This next group of letters helps to support the first group. They aren’t necessarily in a lot of sight words found in those emergent readers compared to that first group of letters, but by adding these letters next, your child will be able to start spelling even more simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

This helps your child with some more challenging decoding opportunities as well because you are adding a lot more consonants, but only one more vowel.

This opens up a lot more words, but is giving a wide variety to the words your child can then start to read without becoming overwhelming.

e-r-u-b-h-f-l

This next set of letters gives your child the rest of the vowels, helping them build on what they have already learned with the previous letters.

Be careful when introducing the letter sound for “e”. It can be tricky to distinguish between /e/ and /i/ in many words. Be very clear when saying the sounds so that your child can hear those differences.

j-w-v-x-y-z-q

These last letters are the letters that show up the least frequent in words.

This doesn’t make them any less important though! Still give these guys the same love and attention that you gave the previous sets of letters and make sure you practice these in context with decoding and blending just as much.

A lot of times these letters are rushed through because they aren’t high frequency letters, which causes children to struggle and mix up their letter sounds when they actually do come across them in a book.

Wrapping it All Up with a Bow

So there you have it! The research-based order I swear by to teach a child the alphabet so that they can learn to read faster. But don’t forget…if you really want to teach your child read, the alphabet is only one piece of the puzzle. You need all the pieces to make it click.

I hope that this was helpful to you as you are trying to plan out how you want to teach letter knowledge and the alphabetic principle.

I know that if you try this order out, you won’t be disappointed!!

Any questions? Drop them in the comments below=)

5 Ways to Learn the Alphabet Quickly and Easily with a 3-6 Year Old Child – Somersault

Before learning the alphabet with a child, it is important to understand what you are not going to do. Namely, learning to read. This is a more complex skill, so it is worth putting it off until the time when the child gets acquainted with all the letters and will confidently recognize them and write on their own. Until then, put off the alphabet and reading by syllables.

In this article, we have put together the basic principles to quickly learn the Russian alphabet with a 3-6 year old child in a playful way. For all games with letters, you can use plasticine, paints and any improvised means or magnetic letters - they will easily attract the attention of the child.

Contents:

1. Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles
2. 5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child
3. From alphabet to reading

How to Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles

Each child can find an easy way to learn the alphabet that suits him or her, but there are basic principles that are important for all children. If you do not follow them, study will turn into drill and the child is unlikely to ever love to read. Here are a few such principles on how to properly learn the alphabet for a child.

1. Learn sounds first, not letters . At the first stage of learning, it does not matter how the letters in the alphabet are called correctly. Now only sounds are important for the child - "d", and not the letter "De". The names of the letters will only confuse the child, who first needs to learn to recognize the shape of the letters and their sound.
2. Not learning the alphabet in the correct sequence . Until a child goes to school, it is of no use to him to know how the letters are arranged in the alphabet. This information will only distract him from what is really important: how the letters look and sound. The sequence of the alphabet can be learned later or even at school, where this knowledge will be tested by the teacher.
3. Do not turn learning into a lesson . Learning from call to call is difficult even for children at school, let alone a baby. Therefore, all learning should take place in a playful way and not for long: 5-7 minutes a day to get acquainted with the letters will be enough. Gradually, this time can be increased, especially if the child likes the proposed games with letters.
4. Use material objects . At the age of 3-6 years, the child learns the world by touch and taste. It is difficult for him to work with abstract letters spoken aloud. Therefore, it is better to stock up on plasticine and paints and create letters that are more understandable to the child and can be touched. Such a game for children will allow the child to learn the letters of the alphabet and he will recognize them in different forms regardless of what they are made of.
5. First vowels, then consonants . Vowel sounds are easier to pronounce, so it's worth starting with them.

The main thing is not to force anyone. If you see that the child is inquisitive, enjoys exploring the world and is ready to learn, you can move on to learning letters and the alphabet. So the child will be happy to learn the alphabet in a playful way and gradually learn to read. So that the game is not abstract, you can use the magnetic letters TUMBLING.

5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child

1. Use an interesting topic to study

Use your child's interest to spur his motivation to learn. For example, if your kid is crazy about cars, let them be the topic in which you learn the alphabet. Use any words related to cars:

"A" - bus
"B" - trunk
"C" - driver, etc.

You can show cars and their parts, draw or sculpt from plasticine. It is important that the child's focus shifts from learning to doing what they love. Additionally, the method will help expand vocabulary and knowledge about the world.

2. Cross out a letter of the alphabet in the list

Fill in a small square with arbitrary letters. The task is to cross out only the letter that you are studying. This will help the child focus on one letter and not get distracted by the ones he doesn't remember or don't know.

3. Pulling the letters of the alphabet out of the pouch

The soft-touch magnetic letters are perfect for this method. Put the letters in a bag and give the child the task, without looking, to pull out only the letter that you thought of. Let there not be too many letters in the bag, otherwise the child will get confused. 6-7 pieces will be enough. To start, use letters that are very different in shape, such as "O" and "M". Gradually, the complexity can be increased and searched among similar letters, for example, "K" and "X". Don't forget to praise and encourage your child. You can alternate the learning process with desktops.

4. Recognize letters of the alphabet by ear

You pronounce a word, and if it contains a hidden letter, the child claps his hands.

With this game for kids, you can learn individual letters or the entire alphabet. For example, you name a word, and the child inserts its first letter into the insert frame. To stimulate your child's interest, you can use only words from his favorite topic, for example, the names of animals.

5. Guess words starting with the first letter

You choose one letter and think of a word that starts with that letter. For example, the letter "Z":

- What is this animal with big ears and loves carrots?
- Hare!

This game form is again suitable for learning individual letters or the entire alphabet. If you learn only one letter, the child gets used to quickly recognizing it in different words. And if you give words with different letters, the child as a whole learns to understand with which letter they begin. With the study of the account and the English language will also help TUMBLING.

From the alphabet to reading

When a child learns the Russian alphabet, confidently recognizes all the letters in different words and can draw or mold them on his own, it is worth moving on to reading. Because you need to learn the alphabet just so that the child can read. If knowledge is not used, it will hang as an extra burden, and by the time school will be forgotten. Therefore, you should not learn the alphabet too early: at 3-4 years old, a child is simply not interested in reading books in order to learn something new. He is more interested when his mother reads. Conversely, by the age of six, the child will be glad to have his own books to read them himself.

How to learn letters and the alphabet with a child aged 3-6

Do you want to know the most effective way to teach your child letters and learn the alphabet in the shortest possible time? With our recommendations, it will not be difficult for you to teach your child the alphabet at 3-6 years old. In just a month of short lessons, you can learn vowels and consonants with your child and start reading.

www.fullhdoboi.ru

Why teach your child the alphabet

Before introducing your child to the letters of the Russian alphabet, answer yourself the question WHY you want to do it right now. Is your child 5 or 6 years old and you want to prepare him for school? He is 2 years old and you want to show off the successes of the little genius to your friends and relatives? The kid is 3 years old and you want to "invest in him the maximum" in all ways available to you, so as not to miss the optimal moment for all-round development? What?

Of course, you can teach your child the alphabet at any age. You can show letter cards from the cradle, but... Let's put parental ambitions aside and focus on the object - the child. Why does he need to know letters? Right to read! Are you sure that right now he is READY to learn the basics of reading? Read what conditions are necessary in order to teach a child to read in our articles and only after that make the right decision:

• How to teach a child to read at 3 years old: pros and cons
• How to teach children 4 years to read
• How to teach a child to read in syllables
• How to teach a child to read well: methods of teaching reading

Any knowledge must be applied in practice. You must clearly understand that the study of letters and the alphabet is teaching the child to read. Otherwise, there is no point, there are a lot of other effective ways to develop memory, thinking, speech. It is not necessary for this to learn letters with a one and a half year old malupas, who is not yet able to pronounce them correctly. If you start learning the alphabet too early, there is a high chance that the child will simply forget the letters by the time he is ready to learn to read. Or the second, more "terrible" moment. Having learned “be”, “ve”, “de”, the child will not be able to read, because other rules work when reading. To merge syllables and turn them into words, you need to pronounce sounds completely different. Relearning is always harder. Be careful with the choice of talking toys and books: they do not always pronounce the letters correctly!

happymama.ru

The knowledge of the alphabet alone will not give the baby anything. He will simply memorize it like a song or a rhyme, but this will not teach him to read. Therefore, leave the study of the alphabet for children 5-6 years old, who will need it at school, and with toddlers, just learn the letters without adhering to the alphabetical sequence.

• The alphabet is not just all the letters, it's the letters in a CERTAIN sequence.
• The alphabet is the base of any language.
• The alphabet is the key to all dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias and other documents where order and systematization are important.
• Knowing the alphabet saves time.

Learning letters: where to start

In what order to learn letters? Do I need to learn the alphabet? Start with vowels or consonants?

Let's be clear, so:

1. No need to learn letters in alphabetical order.

2. Do not learn letters mixed up: either vowels or consonants.

3. First, learn the 10 vowel letters with your child.

We wrote in detail about how to learn 10 vowels in 5 lessons. The technique is really very effective and simple. Any mom will do.

4 . Consonants are best taught after vowels.

5. Name the sounds, not how the letter is pronounced in the alphabet.

Why is it important to learn 10 vowels well?

Practice shows that children who read poorly stumble because they forget how to read vowels. So that the child does not “stumble” while reading, take your time learning the letters. At the initial stage, pay attention to the vowels: how they are pronounced, how they look in writing. And only after that go to the consonants.

How to teach a child the alphabet at 3-4 years old

If you decide to teach your child the letters at 3 years old, remember that nothing can be done by force, only games, only entertaining exercises and NO FORCE. These recommendations are relevant for any age, because you do not want to develop a reluctance to study and go to school in the future.

• Don't expect your child to memorize many letters at once. Do not aim to learn the entire alphabet, it will take time.
• Twice a week give your child new material, and on other days repeat and reinforce what has been learned.
• With a child of 3-4 years old, it is enough to do 2-7 minutes a day.
• Learn vowels in pairs, so it will be easier for the child to remember: A - I, O - E, U-Yu, Y - I, E - E.
• Before introducing the child to consonants and starting to learn to read, make sure that the knowledge of all vowels is brought to automatism.

How to learn consonants: a game method

There are many more consonants than vowels. It will take more patience, effort and time to study them. But everything will work out if you strictly follow the recommendations and take your time.

Prepare a table. Each table has six rows. In the top line, write or print hard consonants in blue, soft consonants in green. In the rest of the lines, write short open syllables.

• Together with your child, sing songs of vowel sounds: in a rough low voice A, O, U, Y, E and a high thin voice Ya, Yo, Yu, I, E.
• Clearly pronounce the consonants in the top line of the table. In each lesson, work with 6 tables.

IMPORTANT! Make sure that the child and you yourself pronounce the consonants clearly, so that after them no extraneous vowels are heard Ы or I. E if the child gets used to speaking D s, C s instead of pure sounds D 9000, 50006 , then it will be incorrect to read.
The most difficult thing is to pronounce pure sounds B, C, D, D; B, B, G, D . The rest are easier, especially the deaf.
Teach a child to pronounce correctly Z and 3b, for example, very simple. Ask your child: “How big is a mosquito buzzing? Z-Z-Z. No, not Z s, but Z-Z-Z! Mosquito cannot speak Z s, he does Z-Z-Z . And how does a small mosquito buzz? 3b-3b-b . Mosquito cannot speak Z and, he does 3-3-3 . This is how we call these letters: З-З-З and ЗЗ-ЗЗ-З ".