In a previous article I covered the pre-reading activities and skills needed as a first step in teaching a child to read. The second step in the reading process is teaching the letter sounds to your child. This step is the foundation of all reading and should be emphasized.
Keep in mind that a child doesn't have to know the letter names before he is taught the letter sounds. In some children teaching the letter names first will produce greater confusion because the letter names are different from the letter sounds. You will have the most success when you teach the sounds if you have a multi-sensory approach that includes writing the letters, seeing the letters, and saying the letters.
Make sure each sound is said in a quick short manner which involves clipping the sound (you can have your child use a scissors like motion after saying each sound to remind them that the sound cuts off). To teach the letter sounds, you can use:
-A sand tray where the child writes the letters in the sand while saying the sound
-Flashcards without a picture to make sure your child is actually learning the sound of the letter and not the picture
-Glue letters or sandpaper letters where a child traces the letter while saying the sound
-Skywriting where a child writes the letter in the air while saying the sound
-Table writing where a child writes the letter on a table while saying the sound
-Walking around a letter outlined on the floor while saying the sound
-Forming the letter with the body while saying the sound
-Any other activity that will combine having the child saying the letter while writing it and visually seeing it or experiencing it through movement
Remember that the fastest way to teach letter sounds is by combining a multi-sensory approach so that your child is speaking, writing, reading, and spelling all at the same time. This type of approach will ensure that children with different learning styles will all learn the sounds equally well.
There is a method of teaching reading that encourages having the child initially learn all of the sounds each letter makes, as opposed to just learning one sound per letter. If you use this method, you would teach a child that the letter a has three sounds (a as in hat, a as in made, and ah as in water). The idea behind this method is that you give the child all the tools they need to crack the reading code from the very beginning instead of waiting. Once you teach all 26 individual letters, you would go on to teach the rest of the 70 written sounds (phonograms) in the English language. I personally prefer this method and have been very successful using it.
Teaching the letter sounds can be a fairly straightforward and pleasurable task if you remember to use all of a child's senses in the learning process while using a method that presents the sounds in a logical way. By teaching the letter sounds to your child, you'll be opening up a world of many possibilities.
Author Info:
Isa Skrobola received her teaching degree at the University of Michigan. She has taught in various settings and has studied the best methods of education for over 10 years. She is currently homeschooling her six children, and wants to offer you more free information about reading fluency at http://www.childfluency.com
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