So we need to teach beginners how to link letters to speech sounds.
Here are some tips:
- Start with the letter and sound at the start of a student’s name (but recognise that some younger students and students with speech sound disorders may struggle with some later developing sounds).
- Focus on lowercase letters. They’re 17 times more common than capital letters in print.
- Ditch the letter of the week. It’s way too slow. Introduce groups of letter sounds.
- Don’t teach commonly confused letters at the same time.
- Don’t teach easily confused sounds at the same time.
- Teach high frequency letter sound links first. When you introduce a new group of sounds, revise the previous ones at the same time.
- Use a tried and tested letter sound sequence. My favourite one at the moment is the Sounds-Right sequence.
To make things easier for parents and teachers, I’ve, made 15 free videos to practice letters and sounds. Download the videos here.
If you find them useful, please let us know!
Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
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