In my last article I started a discussion about children and learning to read. In the last article I discussed the first stage of learning to read. This stage includes letter recognition and letter sounds.
After children master several letter sounds, they are ready to begin what is called sound blending or word blending. In this phase, children begin to put sounds together to make words. Children can begin this step even when they do not know all of the letter sounds.
Work with the letter sounds that the students do know. CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words are the most common word practice for students to begin reading.
Children begin by learning and using the short vowel sounds first. They can then be ready for simple CVC words such as cat, dog, pop, red, etc.
Some children have a very hard time moving into this stage. They are fluent in recognizing the letters of the alphabet and even know the sounds; however putting the sounds together to make a word can be very complicated for them.
I have had some students who can say each sound of the word as an individual very well. However they do not have the phonemic awareness skills to hear the words through the individual sounds.
Parents can help strengthen these skills by helping children break words apart and put them back together. This can be done before the child even knows any letters by sight.
The parent simply states a word and has the child say the individual sounds. For example, a parent can say cat. The child will respond with three sounds /c/ /a/ /t/.
The activity can also be done in reverse. The parent says the sounds and the child puts them together to make a word.
These are great activities to begin with your preschool child. They require no tools and can be fun to do in the car.
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