Today we’re going to talk about how to support your child in transitioning from sounding out individual letters to reading whole words by: checking our pronunciation, practicing blending, and the power of chunking. Whether your child has difficulty reading, or is just starting the process, sounding out is the first step kids take on their literacy journey.
Many students learn to read without difficulty. Others, however, will hit roadblocks which they need support to overcome. One of the earliest roadblocks for early readers is the ability to blend. This necessary skill helps students transition from knowing their letter sounds to actually reading. Students can become quickly frustrated if they know all their letter sounds but still can’t make sense of the words. This can lead to guessing, avoidance, or negative language around reading.
Helping at Home
So how can parents help their child if blending sounds is harder for them?
It is easy as 1-2-3:
- Remove common issues with sound pronunciation that cause problems
- Understand how sounds fit together and give them strategies to use
- Be explicit about which words can be sounded out this way and which words will need a different strategy or recognizing a different pattern.
Think About How You Say Sounds
One of the most common problems experienced by students stems from their pronunciation of individual sounds, also called phonemes. It is imperative that short vowel sounds be clearly pronounced. Some kids do not differentiate them enough and make an /uh/ sound for every vowel symbol. This is a problem because then words like: but, bat, bit, bet, and bot will all sound the same and that makes connecting the written sounds to a spoken word difficult.
Here is some help:
- A sounds like the /a/ in apple
- E sounds like the /e/ in edge
- I sounds like the /i/ in if
- O sounds like the /o/ in octopus
- U sounds like the /u/ in up
Check out this short video to hear a teacher say them: Short Vowel Sounds Practice Drill!
Another common problem is adding an /uh/ sound to consonants. For example, saying the sound for t as /t-uh/. This means that when they sounds out a word like b-a-t, what they hear is /b-uh/-/a/-/t-uh/ or buatuh. Helping students to make clear sounds will help them blend later on. So the sound for p should sound like a little pop of air, not like “p-uh.”
Check out this short video to hear a teacher say the sounds: Cut the “uh” off your letter sounds
Blending Strategies
Hold the Middle
Sounding out words is a learned skill that takes practice. Over time, students will move from taking longer to sound out words to being able to process more quickly and say the word more naturally. A good way to help kids start down the path of sounding out with CVC words like dog is to “hold the middle” which means say the first sound, transition to the vowel sound and hold it longer, then tack on the end sound. It would be /d-oooooooo-g/. This helps students to sequence the sounds.
Stop Sounds vs. Continuous Sounds
Another way to help students is to utilize the characteristics of stop sounds and continuous sounds in phonics. Continuous sounds are letter sounds made with a continuous flow of air. This includes letters like /s/, /m/, /v/ and /r/ as some examples. Short vowel sounds are also continuous. Stop sounds are made with a puff of air and a quick movement of the tongue or throat. Some examples of stop sounds are /t/, /k/, /d/ and /g/.
It is easier to blend continuous sounds so a word like map is easier than a word like pit. In the word “map” the student can hold one sound until they begin the next sound like mmmmaaaaa-p but there is less opportunity for smooth blending with pit which would be blended p-iiiii-t. If a student is struggling with blending, explicitly working with them first on words which have more continuous sounds can help them.
Dealing with Consonant Blends
Our last tip is for when a child starts to sound out words with consonant blends. Consonant blends are letter combinations where each consonant keeps its own sound (e.g. st-, pl–, –nd, etc.). It is helpful to practice blending the combinations without any other letters (flash card style), then sound out words with blends at the beginning (stop, prim), then practice words with blends at the end (lamp, band) and then words with blends at the beginning and at the end (stand, plant).
Here is a list of consonant blends for reference: Consonant Blends Word List | Reading Universe
Remind Your Kid that Reading is Lots of Different Skills
Lastly, sounding out three and four letter words is a first step on the long road to being a fluent reader. Sounding out is not the only strategy that students will use and very soon they will be reading more difficult words using chunking and pattern recognition–digraphs such as sh- and ch-, long vowel pairs, etc, will need different skills.
They will also start to see irregular words (through, build) and exceptions. As students come across these situations, it is okay to let them know that they need a different strategy or this is something that they have not learned yet. Do not let them get bogged down sounding out words that they will not be successful reading that way. Let’s take the word “fall.” If a beginning reader applies their sounding out, they will read f-a-l. In that situation, it is okay to say “a-l-l, says /all/ so this word says “fall” and move on from there.
Making the jump from letter sounds to reading words can be a big leap. Parents can help their kids be successful and gain confidence by helping them practice in a way that leads them down a clear path to reading success. If you get stuck – remember that we’re here to help. We believe that all children can be fluent readers, and are happy to help them get there.