The other day I received a comment from a parent asking “When is the right time for me to start teaching letter sounds to my child?”
And this question got me thinking…. Hmmm… this is a really good question.
You know me, instead of just answering this question just for this one parent, let me write a blog post for all of my peeps (parents) out here that might be wondering the same thing.
As always, let me ease all of your angst and start by saying YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A TEACHER TO TEACH YOUR CHILD HOW TO READ. You just need a few simple guides and tools to get the job done.
In this blog post I am going to discuss when and how you should start teaching letter sounds to your child, so when it comes time for them to start school they’ll have a strong reading foundation.
We’ll cover:
Before you go teaching your child letter sounds there are a few things that you need to know:
Phonics teaches how to directly link the letters (graphemes) to sounds (phonemes) which then teaches kids the sounds each letter makes when they come across the alphabet.
Phonics allows kids to connect letter sounds and letters, or groups of letters (like ch or -igh) in a more straightforward way.
Believe it or not, the best time to teach letter sounds to your child is at birth. Now before you go panicking on me, hear me out…
I’m not saying go and buy a lot of flashcards and start flashing letters. What I AM suggesting is that from birth you should start speaking to your child as if you were speaking to an adult.
Oftentimes I see you parents of infants and toddlers use what I call “baby language” and this prevents your child from really hearing and understanding how words and letters are formed in conversation.
Next, surround your child with a rich language environment. When my son was a toddler I loved to cook with him and show him recipes so that we could follow along.
Another way that you can foster a print rich environment is to read their favorite book over and over again no matter how tired you get of it.
They really enjoy this and this also promotes letter sound knowledge!
Finally, from birth to 2 years old I would encourage that you sit down and actually hold conversations with your child. Talk to them about the environment around them: what they see when they go outside or the grass that is on the ground.
Start to build those vocabulary skills early and it will promote a literature rich environment without you having to go out and purchase a lot of things that really make no difference at this age.
This is my favorite age to start teaching letter sounds.
Kids are very inquisitive and hungry to learn, so you are able to teach them so much during this precious time.
I like to call this stage the phonological awareness stage or the ability to hear and manipulate sounds.
This is where you want to start introducing your child to rhyming words with their favorite books.
My favorite books for this stage are the old school Dr Seuss, Cat in the Hat and Hop On Pop books.
This is also a great time to introduce all of those old school nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; just to name a few.
Rhyming helps kids develop the ability to break words down into smaller parts, just like puzzle pieces, and be able to string those sounds back together.
Now it’s finally time to start teaching your little one their letters & letter sounds and how they go together.
You want to be careful and make sure you’re teaching them the correct way to pronounce each letter sound, so when they begin to read and blend those sounds together they’re able to do that without any hiccups
This is the stage where when you teach letters sounds first and the names of the letters.
My phonics flashcards show you exactly how to teach the letter sounds with confidence.
These flash cards have step by step instructions on how to introduce each letter sound to your child. Along with the step-by-step instructions there is a short video clip that demonstrates how each letter should be pronounced.
These flash cards also have activities to reinforce the sounds so that your child will commit those sounds to memory. .
Not only is it important for your child to learn letter sounds at this age, it’s also important for them to connect the words with initial sounds.
For example they should be able to tell you in the word cat the initial sound they hear is /c/ .
Thank you for joining me in exploring the crucial steps to teach your child letter sounds. From birth to the phonics prep stage, we’ve covered essential milestones.
Now, for a seamless learning experience, I invite you to join the waiting list for my phonics flashcards. These cards provide step-by-step instructions, engaging video clips, and activities to reinforce learning. Equip your child for a confident reading journey. Click below to reserve your spot on the waiting list and start the literacy adventure together!