E-Course - Part 4
The First Words

So you have taught your child the basic letter sounds; you have taught him to write the letters; what next?

The first words.

Phonics Word Humps

The jump from letters to words can be a big one for many children. It doesn't need to be; but unless a phonics course takes particular care to ease children through this stage then the leap will often be confusing.

The main obstacle encountered is almost always that even though children can usually read out the sounds of each letter, they have trouble putting the letter sounds together in their mind to form a word. C-A-Tcomes to them as three separate sounds: c as in card, a as in ant and t as in tap – but not as one composite word cat! The individual sounds never piece together to form a whole word.

Playing Games

There are a few ways to overcome this problem, the first and most important of which is to play some pre-reading games. One simple game, created by the Fitzroy Method, is called the Good Ears game.

This game not only teaches your child that words are sounds put together in a precise order, but even more importantly it trains her ear to piece together different letter sounds to form whole words. This will soon become one the most essential skills in helping develop her phonics reading ability.

The Good Ears Game

The Good Ears game should be taught right from the very beginning of any phonics course your child uses, since this will ensure that she has the proper preparation needed to confront the challenge of piecing letters together to form words. The more practice she does in the initial stages, the easier it will be later on.

For native speakers of English, Good Ears starts with a teacher or parent reciting some sounds in a random sequence and asking students if they make sense.

For example, a teacher might say, b, j, k, to which students will shout out that it makes no sense at all. The teacher can then say a word like c-at (c for card + at). To this, students will eagerly call out that it does make a word: cat!

This game is repeated several times, using real words and fake words, each time reinforcing the idea that words are sounds put together in a meaningful order.

For students who speak English as a second language, only real words should be used. Otherwise they will get confused because they won't be sure what is a real word and what isn't.

This small difference isn't of huge importance, however, as children still get to practise the most important thing: piecing words together from sounds.

In both cases it is important during the initial stages to notice that the words chosen are not only all simple three letter words, but that they are all broken down into two sounds, e.g. c-at, or t-op. This makes them easier to recognise and is a necessary stepping stone towards recognising words broken down into all their individual letters sounds (e.g. c-a-t).

Number Ears

Another listening game children can play is Number Ears. This game, also created by the Fitzroy Method, gets children to say how many distinct sound units there are in a word.

The aim of the game is to train a child’s ear to hear the different sounds in words. This is an important (phonics) step in being able to write and spell them. Children who are careless in this regard sometimes end up making basic mistakes like spelling bend as bed, simply because they didn’t listen properly in the first place. Number Ears will help children avoid this type of mistake.

The game begins when you say a word slowly to your child, clearly pronouncing each distinct sound unit (for example, f-i-sh for fish).

You then ask how many sounds there are in the word, making sure your child understands the difference between the number of letters a word has and the number of sounds it has.

Book, for instance, has three sounds (b-oo-k), just as pen does, even though book has an extra letter. The reason for this is that book contains the digraph oo that makes only one sound.

Some examples words you could use to play are as follows:

dog	(3 sounds)
head	(3 sounds)
peel	(3 sounds)
train	(4 sounds)
bend	(4 sounds)
round	(4 sounds)
cover	(4 sounds)

Note that these are only suggestions and almost any word will do at this stage since the exercise is an oral one and children are not yet expected to be able to spell the words.

Repeating Whole Words and Phrases

Another tip to help move from letter sounds to whole words is to repeat words and sentences after they have been sounded out. In other words, after your child sounds out c-a-t, it is often a good idea to either get him to say the word as a whole or, if he can’t, to say it yourself, i.e. cat.

The same goes for sentences. Wait until an entire sentence has been sounded out and then repeat it (most likely – at least to begin with – you will have to do this, not your child).

For example, your child sounds out A c-a-t s-a-t o-n a m-a-t, and you say the sentence as a whole: A cat sat on a mat. This is necessary because if you don’t do it, it is quite probable that – at least in the beginning – your child won’t be able to remember what the sentence was because it took too long to sound it out.

Although it might take a while for your child to become fluent enough not to need words and sentences to be repeated, this is not something to be overly concerned with, for this stage will pass – and generally before too long. It is simply part of the learning process and all children must move through it to some extent or another.

So if your child takes a while to become fluent at piecing letter sounds into words, then don’t worry. Before long it will be a thing of the past.

Making Digraphs Meaningful

Digraphs (the combination of letters to form a new sound, e.g. c + h to give you ch; or s + h to give you sh) can be a confusing for children. Think about it: we spend a good deal of time telling them that letters make sounds; we spend a good deal of time teaching them the basic sounds these letters make; we get them to decode simple words; and now, out of the blue, we tell them that sometimes letters don’t in fact make their basic sound. It’s crazy!

So how then can you go about explaining this without undermining everything you have already taught your child? The answer comes courtesy of the Fitzroy Method: cooking with letters.

Cooking with Letters

In order to make digraphs meaningful to your child you can make a simple analogy and explain that letters are sometimes cooked together to produce a new sound – just like different ingredients are cooked together to make a cake.

To make this idea clearer, it’s usually a good idea to ask your child if she knows what ingredients you need to make a cake. She may need a bit of prompting; but soon enough you will have a list: sugar, eggs, flour, sultanas, bananas – whatever!

After you have your list, explain how you need to mix these ingredients together before putting them into the oven (naturally in a cake dish). You can act this out using your imagination, or perhaps you can even give your lesson while demonstrating how to make a cake. Either way, once the cake is in the ‘oven’ you can ask your child what she thinks is going to come out of it. With a bit of luck the reply will be a cake.

Once you get the correct answer you should ask whether the cake will look different from, or the same as, the ingredients that went into it, namely: sugar, eggs, flour etc. When you are told that it will look different from the ingredients, you finally get to make your point: sometimes it is just the same with letters. You put in, say, a c and an h, stir them together, put them in the oven, cook them together and out comes a ch as in chug.

To make the idea clearer still, it will generally be necessary to give several examples of letters being cooked together. This will naturally work best if you add a bit of drama by acting out the scene: you ‘stir’ the letters together with your arms; you put them into an imaginary oven; you take them out cooked together. Dramatizing your lesson will help make the concept vivid and memorable.

Conclusion

To avoid a difficult transition from letters to words, we recommend that you get your child to play plenty of listening and word forming games. Since phonic programs revolve around sound, it is crucial to train the ear right from square one. Don’t wait until all of the letters and letter sounds have been learnt first. Play these listening games even before you child can read and write. This will greatly accelerate reading development later on.

Summary:

• Many children initially struggle to form whole words from individual letters sounds. This is normal and nothing to worry about.
• Playing games like Good Ears and Number Ears from day one of phonics lessons will do much to overcome the problem of forming whole words from letters sounds. These games train the ear both to hear individual sounds (Number Ears) and to hear whole words from sounds (Good Ears).
• For most children it will initially be necessary to repeat entire words and sentences after they have been sounded out letter by letter. This is normal and nothing to worry about. With practice children will understand what they are reading as they are reading it.
• Talking about ‘cooking with letters’ helps make digraphs (letter combinations, e.g. ch or sh) meaningful to young minds.

Part 5

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