Jj is for Jottings 78.  Sound Blending – “Look, Mummy, I Can Do It By Myself”.

Another Sound Blending Game.

Following on from the previous article on sound blending (see here), here’s another simple way to help your child blend sounds spoken by other people:

Step 1.

Collect a few small objects, toys or pictures with 2 or 3-sound names. Eg.  car (2), fish(3), bike(3), knife(3), ball (3) etc.

Step 2.

Spread the items in front of your child, making sure each is clearly visible.  If there is any doubt as to whether or not the child knows them, point to each and have him name them, just to be sure.

Step 3.

Say the name of one of the items, broken into individual sounds (not letter names).  The child then blends the sounds together to make the word and points to the correct object/picture.  At first, you may need to leave very little gap between the sounds, so you are nearly-but-not-quite actually saying the word.  As the child improves, increase the time gap between the sounds.  When that becomes easy, add longer words.

Sound Blending Independently.

Now it’s time for children to blend sounds they are saying themselves.  The same principles apply – begin with much support and then reduce the support as they become more proficient.

Step 1.

The easiest way to support them is to read a simple story with them (their reader or something different).  You read all the “other” words.  When you stop, the child is expected to sound out and blend the next word.  Obviously they need to be looking at all the words as you read, so the size of the print and the density of words on the page must be carefully chosen so that it’s not daunting, and you need to choose a word that is pretty obvious from the context, with not too many sounds.

Step 5.

Gradually remove support until the child is sounding out and blending single words in the absence of a story.

Important Note.

It is absolutely vital that sounds are being pronounced correctly in order for a child – or anyone, for that matter – to succeed in sound blending.  That means, for example, not adding /ə/ (for an explanation/refresher, see here) to voiceless consonants, such as /p,t,k/.  You often hear people say /pə, tə, kə/ instead of just the sound.  As you can imagine, this muddies the waters when trying to blend a word.  To make quite sure that you are saying the sounds correctly, you can check yourself on this video, in which I am saying the sounds as I read “Aa is for Alpacas”.  And of course trying to blend letter names will never lead to the word, so it is really important to get into the habit of using sounds in the early stages of reading.

 

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