Learning the sounds of letters

5 Fun And Easy Tips

Letter sounds are one of the very first things your child will encounter when they begin to explore reading.

By recognizing the phonetic sounds that alphabetic letters make, your child will take their first big step toward associating words with their individual sounds, an essential tool for, when the time is right, sounding out words.

Most new readers start from the same place — by learning their letters! And no matter where your child is on their reading journey, working with them on their letter sounds is a great way to help strengthen their fundamental skills.

Here are five fun and effective tips for working on letter sounds with your child.

5 Fun And Easy Ways To Teach Letter Sounds

1) Touch And Feel Letters

Humans are tactile creatures, and we depend on touch to tell us a lot about the world around us. This is especially true of kids when they’re learning!

Although most traditional reading curriculums focus on auditory and visual cues for letters and their sounds, touch can be helpful, too. We have five senses, after all, so we might as well take advantage of them!

As opposed to relying solely on how a letter looks when it’s written (and flat), adding in a physical sensory element can help your child build a stronger connection to the letter sound they’re trying to learn.

Doing this engages an extra part of their brain while they learn. Not only will they know what the letter looks and sounds like but also what it “feels” like. Associating the “feel” of a letter with its pronunciation may help them gain a better understanding of letter sounds more quickly.

There are plenty of options for exploring reading through your child’s sense of touch. The best part? Your child will get to do one of their favorite things — make a mess! Letting them get messy with letters provides a great incentive to learn.

If you’d like to try this tactile learning style, you can get started by grabbing a few blank pieces of paper. Using a thick, dark marker, write out the letters you want your child to work on.

Then, you can simply grab whatever you have around the house that is malleable enough to form into letters. PlayDoh or kinetic sand are both great options.

We recommend saying the associated letter sound as your child looks at and forms the written letter with the PlayDoh or kinetic sand. You can also encourage them to shape their material over the outlined letter on the page if they need some extra guidance.

Feel free to also brainstorm words with them that share the letter sound they’re practicing. This could help them make even more connections to the letter and its sound!

If you don’t mind a little extra clean up, shaving cream can also be a great option! Simply spread out the shaving cream on a flat surface. Trace out the letter for them in the shaving cream, then ask them to do the same while you repeat the letter sound.

2) Connect Letter Sounds To Familiar Symbols

Letters and their sounds might be unfamiliar to your child. By making a connection between letter sounds and items or symbols your child might already be familiar with, you can help bridge the gap between what they don’t know yet and what they do!

Utilizing things that your child already knows and loves may encourage them to get more engaged with learning their letter sounds. Familiar ideas will also make them feel more confident and comfortable while learning.

For example, if you want to start with the letter “T,” consider printing out pictures of things that start with “T” that your child loves, such as trucks and tigers. Let your child choose which pictures to use, and then help them create their very own alphabet book with those images!

Working with your child to construct their personal letter-sound alphabet — a mixture of the specific picture you want them to learn to associate with a particular letter sound — is an easy and fun craft project that will pay off in the long run.

The more personalized you can make the learning process the more fun your young learner will have!

Familiarity can also help your child beyond simply learning the letter sound: it helps them build confidence! The more your child feels like they understand and know what they’re reading, the more likely they’ll be to develop an enthusiasm for learning.

3) Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

This technique focuses on repetition, which is great for getting your child familiar with their letter sounds. By consistently repeating the same letter sounds to them, you can help your child more easily pick up on them.

A great idea might be to focus on introducing your child to one letter sound at a time. You could make a “letter of the week” jar for your child. Place an empty jar on your counter labeled with the letter sound for the week.

Every time your child points out a word they’ve heard that starts with the letter sound of the week, they earn a “ticket” or “point” in the letter sound jar (you could also use stickers on a poster if you don’t have a jar handy).

Challenge your child to gain three or four points (or more!) during the day. You’ll want the jar to be somewhere your child sees it often — maybe in the kitchen so you can prompt your learner to think of a word while you’re making dinner or washing dishes!

They don’t have to rely on only the things they hear or see in real life, especially when it comes to those trickier letter sounds (like x, q, or z). Consider using some of your daily reading time to flip through magazines or books and point out the letter sound whenever you come across it.

Emphasizing repetition this way really gives your child the chance to focus intensely on a single letter and explore the primary sound it represents!

Giving them ample amounts of time, practice, and exposure to one sound at a time may help them with their learning longevity.

4) Digital Letters In The 21st Century

Technology is a huge new factor in modern-day learning. Not only do children learn how to read and write texts, but now they also have to learn how to use a keyboard at a very young age.

While too much media time can be bad for your child, there are ways to be mindful about media consumption and incorporate media into their letter-sound learning. Especially for busy families, media can be a really useful asset to add to your parenting tool belt.

If you’re looking for a safe, personalized, and reliable place for your child to work on their reading and letter-sound skills, our online learning center has tons of playful games and exercises!

Your child can also use a simple keyboard to engage their letter-sound skills. For this activity, you can call out the sound of a letter and ask your child to hit or point to the letter it matches on a keyboard.

This exercise is easy and versatile, as you can use any keyboard you have around — on your phone, your computer, or a device designed for kids. And your child will probably love pretending to be a grown-up just like you!

5) Bingo

Classics are classics for a reason. And Bingo is a time-tested, kid-approved game!

If you’d like to take a shot at this activity, draw or print out a Bingo sheet that has pictures of things your child is familiar with (remember tip #2!). We recommend sticking to things they see daily, like apples (for the “a” letter sound), bikes (for the “b” letter sound), and so on.

To play, call out a letter sound and instruct your child to mark off the picture that begins with the same sound. If your child has siblings or neighborhood friends, consider inviting them to play along (it makes for a great virtual game, too).

The first to make it to bingo wins!

Making Letter Sounds Fun And Functional

We hope these tips were helpful and gave you some creative ideas for how to get your child engaged with letter sounds (while having a blast along the way!).

We always want to leave you with a reminder that on the journey toward helping your child become a confident, enthusiastic reader, it may take some time to discover what learning strategies are the perfect fit for them. That’s OK!

If you ever need a little extra help or want to switch up your child’s learning routine, our learning center is always open and full of engaging and effective exercises for your emerging reader!

Author

Tips for Teaching Letters and Letter Sounds

Welcome to Part 1 of Teaching the Alphabet! I receive several emails a week, asking for advice on how to teach letters and/or letter sounds to children from Pre-K through 1st grades.

So, today I’m going to share a few ideas for teaching kids in this age-range. If you have a younger child (toddler age), I share more tips about teaching toddlers the alphabet in this post.

Note that I’m going to explore some hot topics in regards to letters and letter sounds. You may completely agree or disagree with my teaching tips. Ultimately, you have to find what works best for your child and stick with it.
*This post contains affiliate links.

Letters OR Letter Sounds?

So which is it? Should we teach letters or letter sounds? There is a widely-used teaching approach which teaches letter sounds first and letter names next. It is believed that letter sounds are more helpful and useful to pre-readers than letter names and therefore, should be taught first. As you’ve probably guessed from the title of my post, I respectfully disagree. And before I go too much further, please hear me say this: if teaching your child her letter sounds first is working, GO FOR IT!

I believe, after reading the reading research out there (such as Ehri, Invernizzi, Cunningham, Calkins, and McBride-Chang), that BOTH letters and letter sounds are highly useful for teaching kids to read and write.

Just three of many reasons I believe this (I would probably bore you with all my reasons):

1- The majority of letter names give the child a huge clue as to the sound (or one of the sounds) they make. For example, the letter D has the /d/ sound at the beginning and the letter F has the /f/ sound at the end. W, Y, and H are the only three exceptions.
2- Letter names make great labels for letters, as many of the letter sounds are harder to make in isolation. For example, b’s sound in isolation tends to sound more like /buh/, which can make blending it with other letter sounds difficult for beginning readers.
3- Letter sounds are more abstract and aren’t as consistent as letter names. Take for example the A in Target. In my experience, it seems more consistent to say, “Oh, I see the letter A in Target,” than “I see an /a/ (short a sound) in Target…but it doesn’t make the /a/ sound. It makes the /r/ sound.” Huh?

No matter what you believe in regards to letters and letter names, “research has established that children who know the names of letters learn letter-sound associations more readily than those without letter-name knowledge.” (Words their Way for PreK-K, 2014)

Upper or Lower Case Letters?

Again, you’re going to hear me say BOTH! Kids need both upper and lowercase letter instruction. While lower case letters are more common in reading and writing, both are needed. If you’re teaching young children, I suggest starting with uppercase letters. Why?

Two reasons:

1- Uppercase letters are easier to visually distinguish than lowercase letters (take for example- the uppercase B and D versus the lowercase b and d)
2- Uppercase letters are easier for beginning writers (for example, E versus e). Even when instructed with lower case letters, I’ve noticed over and over again that young children naturally prefer uppercase.

But please hear me say that while I may start instruction with uppercase letters when working with young children, I believe it’s important to expose young children to all kinds of letters, even different kinds of fonts. Pointing out and talking about the kinds of letters you find while reading together, also known as print awareness, is a GREAT way to integrate this into what you’re already doing (both for younger and older children).

Letter Confusion

While some may teach letters in alphabetical order, I believe there is a more developmentally appropriate way than starting with a and ending with z.  I like to introduce letters and letter sounds in a different order, which can help to minimize confusion.

Visual Similarities

Some letters look very much the same (such as b, d, p, and q or W, V, Y). And kids confuse these often, even older kids. I encourage you to separate these letters and teach them at different times to minimize confusion.

The Point of Articulation

While this may sound fancy, it’s just a way of saying that some letters, while they look very different, have sounds that are produced in the same part of the mouth. Take for example g and k. Both sounds are guttural (produced in the back of the throat). If you say a /g/ sound without using your voice, you get the /k/ sound. Other letter sounds to avoid teaching together are t and d, f and v, or b and p.

Speech Delays

Some kids (I have two of my own) have difficulty with the production of certain letter sounds. These letters may include f, j, l, r, s, v, y, or z. While I am not an expert in this field, I do know that speech delays can delay letter sound learning, spelling, and reading. Two of my favorite resources for helping kids with articulation issues has been Katie of Playing with Words 365 and Reading with TLC’s Lively Letters.

Letter of the Week?

Letter of the Week has gotten a bad rap. I’ve even advocated against it at times. My thoughts are still mixed on the topic. And I’ll share why.

• Letter of the Week can be an effective way to make sure your phonics instruction is meaningful, playful, and systematic. Many kids need systematic phonics instruction, especially kids who are struggling to grasp their letters and sounds, BUT…

• Letter of the Week should not limit your phonics instruction to only that letter, especially as your child develops into the late Preschool and Kindergarten years. If we only focus on one letter a week, it takes 26 weeks to get through them all…much too long of a time for kids to have the ability to take letters and use them for meaningful spelling, reading, and writing. Kids need to have purposeful exposure to letters (all of them) each day. Letters need to be pointed out and used during reading time, when you’re playing with letter blocks, when you’re writing their name on their art. Letters (all letters) are important, not just the letter of the week.
• If you need something systematic in the Pre-K and K years, I propose starting with two to three letters a week. Pick letters that are visually and phonetically different, as we’ve discussed above, like T and F. Sort them by their sounds. Sort toys that begin with those sounds. We can get through the letters at a much faster pace (if the child is ready) if we focus on more than one letter a week.
• Sometimes kids already know a handful of letters and their sounds. If you think this is the case for your child, there’s no need to spend an entire week on letters they already know. To find out what your child knows/doesn’t know, pull out an abc puzzle and assess her, like I show in this post {free printable assessment chart included}. Once you have a grasp on what your child does or does not know, you have a clearer vision on which letters to teach.

Letter Order

In what order should we teach letters? The first place I always start is with the child’s name. A child’s name carries great meaning to them and a sense of identity. After that, I teach letters OUT OF ORDER. The order in which I teach them depends on the age of the child. Most kids can sing the ABC song by the age of 2 or 3. They already know the order. By teaching the letters out of order, you are ensuring that kids know them out of the context of that song. When asking kids, “What’s this letter?”, we want children who do not need to sing the ABC Song to figure it out (I’ve seen lots of kids do this, even in Kindergarten).

With Reading the Alphabet, I decided to pick letters that were visually and phonetically different, but were also easier to write first. I also chose to add vowel instruction in early so that kids could begin to form words with the letters, like you see in Lesson 7 (AT Family). While each week features one letter, you will see that we studied more than that letter every week, sometimes sorting multiple letters and sounds at one time. But, no matter the order you choose, you want to choose letter combinations for teaching that will minimize confusion.

More Resources on Teaching Letters and Their Sounds:

• Words Their Way: Letter and Picture Sorts for Emergent Spellers
• Words Their Way for PreK and K (Johnston, et. al)
• Reading the Alphabet – FREE curriculum (taking it a step deeper after kids know their ABC’s)
• Letter Order Teaching {Living Montessori Now}
• Teaching the Alphabet to Preschoolers {The Measured Mom}
• Letting Go of the Letter of the Week {Pre-K Pages}
• Teaching the Alphabet {PreKinders}

You can find all the post in this 4-part series by clicking here or on the image above.

~Becky

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Learning SOUNDS AND LETTERS | LITERATURE | GAMES WITH LETTERS

POPULAR PAGES alalia articulatory gymnastics childhood autism speech defects dysarthria dyslalia stuttering sound symbols learning sounds and letters iotized vowels lecture notes for speech therapists lexical topics speech therapy books logarithmic hand and finger massage fine motor skills mimic tables by name mimic tables by topic mnemonics mutism speech disorders learning to read general speech underdevelopment (OHP) finger gymnastics finger theater study aids home speech therapy rules signs of speech development disorders causes of speech disorders prevention of stuttering educational games educational books development of fine motor skills development of speech breathing development of auditory attention speech gymnastics rhinolalia homemade stencils for developing fine motor skills homemade finger theater vocabulary word formation syllabic reading syllabaries auditory attention communication style with a child poems about letters upper respiratory exercises exercise with beads exercises with clothespins phonemic tales phonemic awareness formation of literate speech cheat sheet for parents (sounds and letters) stages of speech development

Welcome! Logopedic site "Chatterbox" - site for speech therapists and caring parents! Sound Acquaintance Methodology - differentiation of sounds - method of acquaintance with the letter One of the meanings of the word "phonetics" is the sound composition of the language. The child's mastery of the sound composition of the language underlies the development of speech. In other words, the peculiarity of the formation of a child's speech directly depends on his ability to hear, recognize and distinguish between speech sounds. Classes for mastering the sound composition of a language by a child include three stages: acquaintance with sound, differentiation of sounds, acquaintance with a letter. Acquaintance with sound (selecting it by ear). Determination of sound characteristics (vowel or consonant), (voiced or voiced). Allocation at the auditory level from a number of other sounds, syllables, words. Determining the place of sound in a word (based on pictures). Determination of hardness - softness (consonant sounds) based on pictures. Compilation of syllables, words from given sounds. Getting to know sound To get acquainted with the sound, you can use riddles, the answers of which begin with a given sound; poems with repeatedly repeated "necessary" sound. You can also use stories in which the sound is associated with a certain image. For example, a story about water (sound [s] - song of water) or a story about a mosquito (sound [s] - song of a mosquito). Refinement of sound articulation. That is, the child is invited to pronounce the sound. At the same time, the child is asked questions that allow him to “feel” the articulation of the sound. For example, "What is the position of the lips (tongue)?" Definition of sound characteristics For example: sound [a] - the mouth is open, the tongue lies calmly, the air does not meet obstacles, the sound can be sung with a voice. It is necessary to explain to the child that such a sound is called a vowel. Sound [m] - lips are closed, air cannot escape freely, as lips interfere with it; the sound can be pulled (that is, the sound can be pronounced for a long time), but it cannot be pronounced higher or lower, that is, it cannot be sung. The child is explained that such a sound is called a consonant. Then the child is invited to put his hand on his neck and repeatedly pronounce the sound [m], while asking the question: “What do you feel?” (throat trembles). When the child is convinced that the “throat is trembling”, it is necessary to explain that it is the vocal cords that are working and such a sound is called voiced. More details about the characteristics of sounds can be found in the section >>> cheat sheet for parents . After getting acquainted with the characteristics of the sound, a series of questions are asked to consolidate the acquired knowledge: Sound [m] ([a]) - what sound is this? (vowel/consonant) Why? (vowel, since you can sing, air does not meet obstacles; consonant - you can’t sing, air meets an obstacle) What consonant? (dumb/voiced) Why? (deaf - the throat does not tremble, the vocal cords do not work; voiced - the neck trembles, the vocal cords work) Separation of a sound from a number of other sounds, syllables, words The next stage is the selection of a sound from a number of other sounds, syllables, words. The game is being played >>> “you hear - clap” . Prerequisite: the child performs this task with his eyes closed. Determining the place of sound in a word Determining the place of sound in a word is based on pictures. For example, an adult shows a picture and pronounces a word, and a child determines the place of the sound being studied (beginning, middle, end of the word). The display is carried out in the following order: pictures for the sound at the beginning of the word, at the end, in the middle and then alternate in a different sequence. In this case, after the child has determined the place of the sound in the word, the picture is laid out in the appropriate row (upper, middle or lower). Thus, the formation and consolidation of the concept of the place of sound in a word is based not only on hearing, but also on vision. Determining the hardness/softness of consonants. When studying consonants, the next stage is introduced - the formation of the concepts of "hard - soft". The child is offered to listen with the simultaneous display of pictures of two words - one for a hard sound (for example, “lamp”), the other for a soft sound (for example, “watering can”). The child is asked if the first sounds sound the same. After determining the difference by ear, the adult explains that one sound is hard, the other is soft, and the pictures are laid out in two rows: for a hard sound - on the left, for a soft sound - on the right. At the end of this stage, the children are once again asked a series of questions to reinforce: What sound were we talking about today? What is this sound? Why is it called a consonant (vowel)? What is this consonant? (deaf - voiced) Why? What can he be? (hard - soft) It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that when studying the first consonant sound, which can be hard and soft ([m]), it is advisable to talk about a soft sign, “saying” that the letter written before it means a soft sound. After the explanation, the card with the letter "b" will determine the place of pictures, syllables, words with soft consonant sounds. Compilation of syllables, words from given sounds The final type of work on the sound is an independent selection of words. The child pronounces the word with the sound being studied, whether it is hard or soft; at the beginning, middle or end of a word. Clarification of articulations and characteristics of sounds, finding their similarities and differences. Selection of a given sound from a number of other sounds, syllables, words (with the performance of specific tasks). Determining the presence of a particular sound and its place in a word (based on pictures). Recording syllables, words for the studied sounds. Compilation of sound schemes, syllables, words. Clarification of articulations and characteristics of sounds, finding their similarities and differences View Items >>> Sound Introduction and >>> Sound Characterization Selection of a given sound from a number of other sounds, syllables, words At this stage, the game is being played >>> “hear - clap” with additional conditions: after hearing one given sound, you need to clap once; hearing another given sound - twice. Determining the place of sound in a word See paragraph >>> definition of the place of sound in the word . Compilation of sound patterns, syllables, words At this stage, the child is asked to make syllables and words from separately pronounced sounds, as well as words from separately pronounced syllables: [w] [a] - [sha] [g] [y] - [zhu] [s] [y] [n] - [soup] [k] [o] [h] [a] - [goat] [zhu] [ki] - [ beetles] [ma] [shi] [on] - [machine] Acquaintance with the letter: examination, comparison with objects of the surrounding reality (what the letter looks like). Selection of its elements. Listening >>> poems about the letter. Drawing a letter with your finger in the air. Drawing a letter on a sheet according to the sample. Reading syllables with the studied letter (>>> development of syllabic reading ). Turning to the acquaintance with the letter, it is advisable to remember that we hear and pronounce the sound; in writing, sound is denoted by a letter; we see and write the letter. Letter games mosaic Cards with letters are cut into several parts, mixed, and the child is given the task to put together familiar letters. conductor Draw a given letter in the air with your child's hand. Then let the child try to do it on their own. architect Fold the given letter from sticks or matches. Then have the child try to do it on their own. Help him if necessary. recognize the letter Recognize and stroke letters written with dots. what is wrong Finding familiar letters in a series of correct and incorrect spellings. peek-a-boo Cards with letters are partially covered, and the children must recognize the letters from the parts that are visible. confusion Recognition of overlapping letters.

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Learning letters and sounds with children

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