Kindergarten sound out words

Helping Kids Sound out Words

I often receive emails asking how to help kids learn to sound out words. Many times, it’s because kids struggle to blend together the sounds in the word. For example, they may sound out the individual sounds in a word, like /l/ – /o/ – /g/ and then say something like, bat. Ugh. And this can be very frustrating for the adult and the child.

What can be done to help kids learn how to sound out words? Before we decide to beat our head against a wall, let’s explore some ideas together!

Before I get too far, I want to share just three warnings, if you please.

1. First and foremost, you want to make sure your child is developmentally ready to sound out words. This is key. If kids aren’t developmentally ready, sounding out words will be nothing but frustrating for your child and for you. I have a post called How You Know Your Child is Ready to Read and The Measured Mom also has a great list of ways to know when your child is even ready to sound out words.

2. Secondly, sounding out words isn’t the end-all-be-all for figuring out words. As kids progress in their word knowledge, we want them to use other strategies. Also, some words are not so easy to sound out and we’ll address those in a minute. But for the purpose of this article, we’re going to zone in on sounding out words.

3. Thirdly, sometimes you can try every trick in the book and your child still struggles to sound out words. Take a deep breath. Keep modeling. Keep playing with sounds. Keep teaching with a multi-sensory approach. Some children really struggle with sounding out words. Be patient and don’t compare your child to another child.

Helping Kids Sound Out Words

When your child/student struggles to sound out words, here are some tips to try. Remember to keep in your mind my three warnings mentioned above. If you haven’t read them, go back and do it!

1. Play with sounds in words.  Even though kids may know their letter sounds, seeing the letters in print and attempting to make and blend the sounds all at the same time blows their mind. It can help to take a step back and remove the actual letters and just play with sounds, specifically blending sounds.

In my 7-day reading series, 3 Important Skills Needed for Reading, I address specifically how to do this by playing with rhyming words, playing with syllables, and playing with phonemes {the individual sounds in words.} For our purposes, phonemic blending and phonemic segmenting will be the most helpful for readers who are struggling to sound out words.

2. Get kids writing and spelling. As I mention in my post on invented spelling and in Teaching Kids to Spell, allowing kids to “sound out” their spellings can actually increase their awareness of sounds words.

For example, if your child wants to write the word hat, help her listen for each sound in the word by stretching the word out. {This is called phonemic segmentation.} Then, after the word has been spelled, ask your child to read the word by blending the sounds back together again {phonemic blending.}

“I love you,” spelled independently by my 4 year old.

So often parents feel that kids shouldn’t spell words until they can spell the word correctly {as taught in some curricula}, but allowing kids to spell by sound can boost kids’ awareness of sounds in words which, in turn, can actually help them become better readers! {You can also read more about this in our 10 week Preschool and Kindergarten Writing Series.}

3. Start with sounds that can be prolonged. Letters don’t all make the same kinds of sounds. In other words, not all letter sounds were created equal {read more about letter sounds here}. Some letters are harder to blend than others. For example, trying stretching out the word pat (p–a–t). Now try stretching out mat (m–a–t). Can you hear how it could be easier to blend together mat than pat?

This is because letter sounds from letters like m, f, h, r, n, s, z and vowels can be stretched or prolonged, making it easier to blend them together. In other words, there’s no break of sound in between them. On the other hand, the letter sounds of c, d, t, and p do not continue their sounds. Try a few sounding out exercises with your child using real and/or silly words with these prolonged sounds like Sam, fan, zom, or nis. Say them slowly at first, then each time you sound them out, say the sounds closer and closer together.

4. Use word families. Blending together two sounds can be much easier for some young readers than trying to blend together three sounds. We typically teach sounding out as three separate sounds {t-o-p}, but many readers will find blending together easier if we teach it like t-op, as explained in my word family post.

One of my favorite activities for young readers is to focus on ONE word family, such as -at.  Help kids see how adding different sounds to the beginning of -at can make new words by letting them manipulate the letters.

To see a few ideas, check out our –at post from Reading the Alphabet. You can also find more hands-on manipulatives for word families with our Flip-a-Word activity and our Dr. Seuss word family hats.

5. Not all words can or should be “sounded out.” I am referring mostly to sight words. And while I do believe that MOST sight words DO follow phonics “rules” and that learners can sound out sight words, learners may not be developmentally ready for all the “rules” that are needed to sound out some of the basic sight words.

For example, the word away is a sight word taught early to young readers because it appears frequently in the books they read. Away follows the schwa rule for unaccented syllables and the -ay long a pattern. Are Kindergartners ready to learn all the rules to help them sound out away? Probably not.

Instead of trying to cram a bunch of rules into their brains {and most of our frequently used “rules” are broken more than followed} to help them sound out these words, some words just need to be learned by sight.

More Tips and Activities for Readers:

Short Vowel Folable Sound it Out Strips

1-2-3 Flip It for CVC Words

Enjoy teaching!
~Becky

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How To Help Kids Sound Out Words: Expert Tips And Ideas

It can take some time for kids to learn how to sound out words. Since this is a crucial part of reading fluently, you probably want to know how you can help. Are there any special exercises you can do at home to assist your child?

Of course there are! And we’ve compiled this detailed guide to help you get started.

What Does It Mean To “Sound Out Words”?

It’s hard to imagine it now, but once upon a time, none of us could read. The alphabet, lower and uppercase letters, and the spaces between words were all confusing. But through time and practice, here we are today.

While many components helped us become fluent readers, learning how to sound out words was one of the game-changers.

In a nutshell, sounding out words means applying knowledge of letter-sound relationships in order to pronounce words properly.

When children learn this essential literacy skill, they will be able to say each sound in a word slowly and then quickly again. They will also understand how to blend the different sounds in a word together without much effort.

Eventually, kids internalize the process of sounding out words. To illustrate what we’re talking about, here’s a little challenge: Try to pronounce “splaf.”

You probably didn’t have to think too hard to pronounce this, even though it’s a nonsensical word. You were able to figure out the pronunciation almost immediately because the process of sounding out words has been so internalized.

At this stage of your life, sounding out happens automatically without thinking. Of course, you didn’t become an expert at sounding out words overnight, and neither will your child. But with time and practice, your young learner can also get there!

Why It Matters

Sounding out words helps kids learn about how to blend sounds, which can help improve their overall reading skills.

Additionally, we know that when children have strong abilities in sounding out words, they are less prone to stumble as books become harder, even when books incorporate vocabulary that they have never seen or heard before.

This can especially be seen during the “fourth-grade slump.” Throughout the first few years at school, most kids can read the material well enough to get by. But around fourth grade, children who haven’t grasped some of the basic word recognition and decoding skills may lag behind.

Helping your child learn how to sound out words early can give them the confidence they need when faced with complicated and unfamiliar text both now and later in their learning journey.

Is Your Child Ready To Sound Out Words?

If your child isn’t developmentally ready to sound out words, forcing it on them can be both frustrating and futile for you and your child.

Here are a few things to watch for to help you determine whether or not your child is ready to start sounding out words:

• Knowledge of the alphabet
• They can play with sounds in words
• Print awareness
• Phonological and phonemic awareness
• They are interested in learning to read

For more information about knowing when to start helping your child learn to read, take a look at our article Reading Readiness: Top Skills For Kids To Master.

How To Help Your Child Sound Out Words

If you feel your child is ready to learn how to sound out words, here are some ways to get started at home.

1) Help Them Identify The Phonemes

A phoneme is the smallest possible unit of sound in a language. For example, the word “cat” has three different phonemes — “c,” “a,” and “t. ” Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate these sounds.

Understandably, it’s challenging for a child who doesn’t understand phonemes to pronounce words correctly.

While reading together regularly gives you a great opportunity to help your child recognize and become familiar with different phonemes, you can also create activities to make things more exciting and help your young learner become more engaged with the content.

Activity Idea: From Sense To Nonsense

Choose a familiar book or nursery rhyme and ask your child to close their eyes as you read the story to them. This will help them focus on what they’re hearing.

As you read, occasionally change the words, word order, or wording. Your child will try to identify these changes, and when they manage to, ask them to explain what they think was wrong.

Here are some examples of how to make subtle changes to words to help your child with their phonemes:

• Mary had a little land
• Twinkle, twinkle, little far
• The wheels on the bus go mound and mound
• Baa baa black sleep have you any wool?

Your child will get a kick out of these little “mistakes” and have fun correcting you!

2) Read Aloud

As a parent, you probably already know the importance of early childhood reading and the great impact it can have on your child as they enter school and later in life. That’s why it’s essential to set aside some regular reading time with your young learner.

While reading, focus on reading slowly and aloud as you pan your finger on each word.

This exercise can help them associate printed letters and their combinations with the individual sounds they make. It will also help them realize that the spoken words we use can be found in print.

3) Demonstrate How To Blend Different Sounds

The ability to blend different sounds in words is essentially how we can read fluently. It helps us smoothly connect the individual sounds in a word as we read.

For example, the individual sounds in “maybe” are m/a/y/b/e. However, because of blending, you can sound out the word as /maaybee/ without even thinking about it.

Here are a couple of activities that can help your child blend different sounds.

Activity: Robot Talk

Robot talk can help a child segment the different sounds of a word. After “robot talking” a word, they can then say the word faster or more fluently.

Robot talk is exactly as it sounds: speaking in shorty, choppy sentences like a robot!

Activity: Guess The Word

All you need to get started with this fun activity is some picture cards of objects or items your child is familiar with (e.g., sun, moon, stars, trees, ball, etc.)

Place the picture cards in front of your child and tell them that you’re going to say a word out slowly and they will need to identify which card matches the word you’ve just said. For example, /ssstaarrsss/.

Playing this game is another way of helping your child recognize the individual sounds in words, a key component of learning how to sound out words.

4) Encourage Reading And Writing

You don’t have to wait until your child is a perfect speller to let them start writing. Any practice they get can help boost their awareness of sounds that are in words and, in turn, improve their writing awareness.

Activity: Sound Out The Written Word

If your child is learning how to spell mat, start by stretching the word out so they can hear each sound (m/a/t). After spelling the word, have your child read the word back to you at a normal pace (blending sounds).

This activity can help improve not only your child’s blending skills but also their spelling. Make it a bit more fun by letting them write each letter in a different color.

5) Play “I Spy” With The Alphabet

Letters are all around us. We might overlook this fun fact, but a child who’s learning the alphabet will find joy in noticing it. Now’s a great time to play “I Spy” — with a little twist, of course!

Play I Spy (driving to school, walking to the park, etc.) to find letters in the world around them. When your child finds a letter, encourage them to say it and the sound it makes out loud.

Take It One Sound At A Time

There is no magic wand that can help your young learner sound out words overnight. But we believe that with a little practice and lots of encouragement, your child will be a word-sounding-out pro in no time!

While on this literacy journey, remember to continue reading regularly, and when they finally get it, embrace those moments (no matter how small) to help keep them motivated.

For more fun activities to try at home with your emerging reader, check out the HOMER Learn & Grow App!

Author

Website of kindergarten №18 "Ryabinka"

Who needs a speech therapist?

Your little one is out of diapers and it's time to send him to kindergarten. To get into the group, you will certainly go to the clinic to get a conclusion about the state of health of your child from a number of specialists, and here you will meet a speech therapist for the first time. What do you know about the work of a speech therapist? Surely many of you will immediately remember the frames of the old Soviet film: “I am a speech therapist. I drink the effects of fiction. But the work of a speech therapist is much broader and more multifaceted than correcting sounds.

As a rule, parents of three-year-olds are not concerned about the child's speech: “He is still small. Grow up and learn." Few parents know that a child at the age of 3, with normal development, replenishes his vocabulary by 100 words every month! You should be alerted if your baby does not make sentences from the accumulated words. If there are few verbs and definitions in his speech. It’s easy to check this, invite the baby to answer: “What can mom do?” With normal speech development, the child gives out: age plus two words. For example, if a child is three years old, he says five verbs (3 + 2).

The reason for contacting a speech therapist at the age of three can also be the fact that during speech the tip of the tongue protrudes between the teeth. If a child pronounces words incorrectly at the age of three, this is normal, since at this time the sound structure of speech is being formed and the child is trying different pronunciation options. The kid can change complex words beyond recognition. However, make sure that the word always retains its outline (the number of syllables and stress), because the basis of the word is vowels.

But if a child has not yet learned to speak words and sounds by the age of five, it is necessary to contact a speech therapist.

By the age of five:

• The child must agree on the words in gender and number: red dress, red berry, red flag, red banners; and by the age of six and in the case: no yellow leaves, from a blue bus, in a gray sundress.

• The child must be able to form and modify the words: run, ran, ran away, ran, run.

• Make sentences simple and complex: “Mom is ironing dad’s shirt”, “When the rain stops, we will go for a walk.”

• It is correct to use prepositions without confusing them. Examples: "The bunny peeked out from behind the bush", "Kolya got the ball out from under the bench."

• Clearly know: "right - left", "yesterday-today-tomorrow".

Another indicator of successful mastery of speech can be considered a developed phonemic hearing and elementary sound analysis of words. Phonemic hearing is the distinction of phonemes: particles of a word that have semantic content. Violation of phonemic perception leads to a violation of sounds and substitutions in oral speech, and at school to substitutions of letters in writing: (beetle-beetle), (case-newspaper), (bowl-clock). The development of phonemic hearing is also one of the components of the work of a speech therapist.

Therefore, dear parents, remember that you are responsible for the future success of your baby. And if, after reading this article, you think about it and still decide to contact a speech therapist, then we are always happy to help you and your child.

"Speech therapy rhyme for the Russian spoon"

Dear parents! Playing at home with a child, memorizing a new nursery rhyme, while reinforcing the sounds set by a speech therapist - let's remember the good old Russian spoon. When learning poems, nursery rhymes, beating time with a spoon, you and I add variety, arouse interest in the child with, it seemed, such a boring thing as memorization. Unbeknownst to the child, we develop auditory memory and attention, the pace and rhythm of speech, correct speech breathing, general motor skills, while introducing the child to the origins of Russian folk culture.

I suggest you play with your child.

Speech activation with simultaneous movements.

RAINBOW.

(The child is sitting on a chair. The exercise is performed without musical accompaniment. The speech therapist suggests reciting the rhyme and at the same time performing movements with the help of spoons).
Parent. Rain, rain...
Child. Cap, cap, cap. (He strikes his shoulders with the spoons.)
Parent. And in the beds ...
Child. Tyap, tyap, tyap. (He hits his hands with spoons, crossing his arms in front of him).
Parent. Along the path...
Child. Top, top, top. (He taps his knees with spoons.)
Parent. And through the puddles...
Child. Slap, slap, slap. (Slaps spoons.)

"SUN".

The sun rises in the morning - (hands with spoons up)

Light illuminates. (tap spoons - loudly)

In the evening it comes - (hands down)

The night is coming. (tap spoons - quietly)

Game "TELEGRAPH" - strengthening the skill of dividing words into syllables. We beat off the last word in the line with spoons by syllables.

WINTER.

Fierce cold, mo-roses -

That's what Santa Claus at - carried !

We are with a cold by - argue - rim ,

We are on a sled from the hill - him .

Although has a red nose, all ,

Cheerful laughter is heard by everyone !

RAIN.

Rain, rain, lei, friend - jock,

I'll give you pi - ro - jock,

Delicate pi - rye - but - e.

Yellow mo - ro - same - but - e.

From the heat of people spa - sai,

Shoots together in - whether - wai!

FOLKLORE .

No dance claim - ro - met - ney ,

Than native Russian - ska - I .

Tap dance heels beat ,

Feet themselves to dance and - blow .

Songs in Rus' pro - sty - e ,

Delicate, long ...

Like them with feeling for - po - yut ,

As if for the soul be - rut .

SO GOOD FELLOWS!

Parent Guide

LEARNING TO HEAR AND PROnounce the sounds CORRECTLY

Dear parents!

Here are some speech games and exercises that you can use at home to improve your pronunciation. Try as often as possible to encourage the child to listen to the sound "clothes" of words, to evaluate their own pronunciation. Remember that your speech is a model for a child, so it should be clear, intelligible and expressive. Do not forget to monitor the correct pronunciation of the fixed sounds by the child both in the game and in everyday life. Do not skimp on praise and encouragement, they are an important incentive for successfully consolidating the skills acquired in speech therapy classes.

STOP GAME. Name any words. The child says "stop" if he hears a word with a fixed sound. Specify which word the child heard. Start the game at a slow pace, gradually speeding it up.

"SCOUTS". Invite all family members to go to the kitchen (bathroom, hallway) or look in the closet (refrigerator) and find as many objects with fixed sound as possible. Whoever finds more items wins.

GUESS. Invite the children to guess different objects according to their description, while reminding that the fixed sound “lives” in all words. Consider rewards for guessing and pronouncing the word correctly.

FIX IT. Say the words in the "faulty" pronunciation and ask the child to correct the mistake.

"BE CAREFUL". When reading fairy tales, stories or poems, ask the child to memorize as many words with fixed sound from this work as possible. A similar task can be offered when looking at the illustrations in the book.

"WHO MORE?". Compete with your child in inventing words with a fixed sound.

"WE ARE ARTISTS". Speak a tongue twister, a tongue twister or a short poem with a fixed sound several times with different intonations (surprised, cheerful, sad) with your child.

"DO OR NOT". Agree with the child that you will carefully monitor his speech and will be able to fulfill only those requests that he will utter without errors.

What a child should be able to do in speech development

THE LEVEL OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AT TWO YEARS
1. Children understand the actions and objects indicated in simple plot pictures.
2. Follow the requests of adults, consisting of two parts.
3. Understand the meaning of spatial prepositions (put on the table, sit on the sofa).
4. Understand the general meaning of the names of homogeneous objects (any chair is a chair).
5. After 1.5 years, they begin to ask questions: “What is it called?”, “What is it?”.
6. By the age of 1.5, the child's active vocabulary contains about 50 words, and by the age of 2 - 200-400 words, mostly nouns denoting game and household items, as well as verbs denoting simple actions.
7. Speech is agrammatic. They use a phrase of 2-4 words, agree on the verbs of the 3rd person singular of the present tense with nouns, use the forms of some cases; the first person of the verbs and the pronoun "I" appear.
8. There are many imperative verbs in speech.
9. Incorrect pronunciation of most sounds of the native language is characteristic (the stage of physiological tongue-tied tongue).
10. Unstable pronunciation of many words: the sound either drops out, or is replaced, or is pronounced correctly.
11. The syllabic structure of polysyllabic words is broken (simplification of the structure by omitting syllables from the middle of the word).
12. Some children have a weak, quiet voice.

LEVEL OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AT THREE YEARS
1. The most important difference between the speech of a three-year-old child and a two-year-old child is the almost complete absence of agrammatisms in the speech of a three-year-old.
2. The connection of words in the sentence is established with the help of endings and prepositions, conjunctions are used, all the main parts of speech are used.
3. Vocabulary is characterized not only by words of purely household subjects, there are words of evaluative meaning, words of generalization. The child already operates with some generic concepts.
4. Sound pronunciation is not yet fully in line with the norm. There are no hissing and sonorants. Hard and soft sounds are differentiated by most children.
5. Words with a complex syllabic structure and consonant clusters may be distorted.
6. If a child has a positive attitude towards books, he likes to listen to familiar fairy tales and poems many times. He remembers the text well and reproduces it verbatim. Free retelling in your own words does not yet give.
7. Understands simple plot pictures.

SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN AT FOUR YEARS
1. Vocabulary reaches 2000 words.
2. Words of the second degree of generalization appear in active speech.
3. Vocabulary is enriched by adverbs denoting spatial and temporal features.
4. “Word creation” appears, which indicates the beginning of the assimilation of word-building models.
5. There are less and less errors in inflection of the main parts of speech in speech.
6. In many children, the sound pronunciation has normalized, in some children there are mixtures of whistling and hissing, as well as the absence of P, P' vibrants.
7. Coherent speech has not yet developed, inconsistency is allowed in stories about events and from one's own life; a retelling of a well-known fairy tale is possible.
8. Well-developed involuntary memory at this age allows memorizing a large number of poetic works by heart.

LEVEL OF SPEECH DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AT FIVE YEARS
1. A qualitative leap in mastering coherent speech: children are able to compose a story from a picture, retell the text in the required temporal and logical sequence.
2. Inner speech begins to form - a condensed, abbreviated form of speech, with the help of which the planning of upcoming activities takes place.
3. Vocabulary has been significantly enriched, children use words of the second degree of generalization.
4. There are no rough agrammatisms in speech, errors are possible when constructing complex sentences.
5. Sound pronunciation has completely returned to normal.
6. The ability to extract sound from a word appears, that is, the skills of sound analysis of words are formed, the sound shell of a word has ceased to be “transparent”, imperceptible to perception.
7. Children are able to arbitrarily change the volume of their voices, they can reproduce various intonations.

Teacher-speech therapist MDOU №18 Savkina Irina Vyacheslavovna

Develop speech by playing on the computer!

Speech therapy games and exercises to do at home.

1. A complex of articulation exercises for setting sounds.

	Smile Lips stretched in a smile (hold count up to 10, 5-7 times)
	Pipe Pull lips forward with tension Teeth closed (count up to 10, 5-7 times)
	Needle Narrow tense tongue stretch forward (hold counting up to 10, 5-7 times)
	Slide Lips in a smile, the tip of the tongue rests behind the lower teeth, the back of the tongue arches, the tongue “rolls out” forward and retracts deep into the mouth
	Spade Hold a wide tongue motionless on the lower lip (hold counting up to 10, 5-7 times)
	Cup Smiling lips, protruding tongue, side edges and tip of the tongue up (hold counting up to 10. 5-7 times)
	Straw Lips in a smile, tongue sticking out, lateral edges of the tongue raised up (hold counting up to 10, 5-7 times)
	Delicious Jam Smile Open mouth Lick upper lip with a wide tongue in the shape of a cup (perform 5-7 times)

Kindergarten No.