Sound reading built on sounds

AS a speech pathologist, Alana Deehan is frequently asked by parents what they can do to ensure that their child succeeds at reading once they start at school.
Alana, who works at the Centre for Healthy Living in Warwick, constantly advises that because sounds are the building blocks of reading and spelling, children who are taught to listen closely for sounds in their world and in words are usually better able to acquire reading and spelling skills.
Alana says this set of listening skills is referred to as phonological awareness.
“Good phonological awareness skills allow a child to hear sounds in words,” she said.
“For example, the word /cat/ is made up of three sounds c-a-t. While teaching letters is useful, it is crucial that a child can hear all the individual sounds in a word. The ability to match sounds to letters comes later on.”
She said children needed to be able to then take these sounds and move them around to make new words.
“For example, if you take the /c/ off the word /cat/ you are left with the word /at/,” Alana said.
“It is therefore important for children to be able to identify when words start or end with the same sound. For example, both /car and cat/ start with a /c/ sound. It is why rhyming is so vital. Rhyming is about hearing when words sound the same at the end.
“Therefore, teaching your child how to hear and generate rhyming words, break words into syllables or individual sounds, tell what sound a word starts with and then be able to create another word starting with that sound, are all critical skills for their literacy development. “
It is easy to create games in the car for these activities.
Alana often suggests these activities for parents:
Listen and identify everyday sounds, e.g., cars, fans, birds singing.
Decide whether two spoken sounds are the same or different, e.g., ‘t-f’, ‘s-s’
Talk about the first/last/middle sounds in words.
Play ‘Odd One Out’ games where the child must identify which word does not start/end with the same sound as the others.
Play ‘Memory’ games where the child must identify pairs that start/end with the same sound.
Try to think of other things that begin/end with the same sound as a particular word.
Play ‘I spy something beginning with … ’
Try to spot as many things in a room/book starting/ending with a particular sound.
Sort pictures according to the sound they start with (which may be different from the LETTER they start with). Junk mail is a great source of pictures for this activity.
If you think that your child is having difficulties with any of these activities, contact Alana at the Centre for Healthy Living in Warwick for an assessment.
For more information phone 4661 3340 – located at Centre For Healthy Living 14 Freestone Road Warwick.