Preschool - alphabet names or sounds first?

[ColoNative]

My two oldest children went to an amazing preschool where they were taught the sounds of the alphabet before the names of the letters. It seemed to work well with both of them. #3 is NOT going to preschool so was just wondering if others had thoughts about teaching sounds before letter names.

 

The theory is that it's easier to transition into reading because the sounds are not confused with the names of the letters. The preschool used a curriculum called "Butterfly Park", if anyone has experience with it, I would love feedback on using it at home.

 

Thanks!

Melody

[wapiti]

That's the approach taken in many Montessori preschools, which my kids have attended. In our house, they ended up learning the letter names as well, via Leapfrog Letter Factory :D (truly an excellent tool for teaching letter sounds). I don't think it matters much either way. If you have a curriculum that teaches sounds only first, then I say go for it!

[MeaganS]

Neither, just do Leap Frog Letter Factory every day for 3 weeks and they will have both down pat! My 2 year old learned all her letter sounds and names this way in a remarkably short time. Painless and effective! :001_smile:

[ColoNative]

At the risk of souding old-fashioned (and please don't blast me for this), but we don't watch TV at our house, so are there other suggestions besides Leapfrog Letter Factory?

[Ellie]

Sounds, because in my house the next formal step in reading would have been Spalding, which teaches sounds.

[ByGrace3]

We teach sounds first. In fact, when dd1 was 3 she was able to blend cvc words before she could identify each letter by name. I think it made learning to read earlier a possibility and caused less confusion. However, some kids are able to learn both at the same time just fine, but I would not teach the name without the sounds... jmho though! ;)

[mamalbh]

Sounds only, if blending (reading) is going to be taught in less than a year, and child has no or very little letter knowledge. That way when they start sounding out words it will be easier to remember.

 

Both at the say time, if you have more time before reading instruction will begin. Just like you teach a young toddler "The cow says moo" The child can answer both questions "What animal is that?" & "What does it say?"

[sbgrace]

I'd teach sounds.

 

When the child was interested and I thought it age appropriate to introduce I'd do a letter of the week type thing but we'd do multisensory work and crafts for the sound of the letter rather than the name.

 

So picture of A and we'd stamp using apples and paint saying the first sound of a as we stamped. I think I'd introduce all the sounds each letter makes knowing what I know now.

 

Specifically, I'd do it using the ideas in the materials I linked in this blog post. http://learningsharingcaring.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-found-these-materials-to-do-complete.html

The methods page describes how to do it in a multi-sensory way and the lessons have particular ideas for specific letters.

So write in sand, write on texture mat (I used a needlepoint/cross stitch mat), do a craft or activity to emphasize the sounds.

 

I'd do this when the child was interested and/or I felt it appropriate. I'm an imaginative play, stories, exploration, and household interaction is the best use of preschool time sort myself!

[NicAnn]

Interesting! I was wondering about this because there was a big gap in the time when Dd learned the letters (as a baby/young toddler) and when she learned the sounds (age 3). For our next one, I think learning letter sounds before or along with the letters is the way to go. I feel like there isn't much "teaching" when it comes to learning the actual letters and they will pick them up from books and toys.

 

For what it's worth, we don't do tv either (well a llittle Starfall and Kipper during my weekly Bible study)...I taught Dd by pointing to the letters in the book titles and making the sounds. It was almost all through talking.

 

Good luck!

[ondreeuh]

For those of you who say sounds, do you only teach "first sounds" (i.e. short vowels) first? I see how that could get them reading CVC words quickly, but most words are not CVC.

 

Or do you show the letter A and give the 3 sounds? "This letter says ah, ay, aw."

[kristinannie]

My oldest two went to preschool as well and learned the letter names and then sounds. I am going to reverse it with my third child. I think it is better for reading to learn the sounds first. And next time I am going to teach all the sounds like AAS does from the beginning. If I were you, I would play lots of phonemic awareness games and read lots of books!

[Five More Minutes]

For those of you who say sounds, do you only teach "first sounds" (i.e. short vowels) first? I see how that could get them reading CVC words quickly, but most words are not CVC.

 

Or do you show the letter A and give the 3 sounds? "This letter says ah, ay, aw."

I'm a sounds first person! :001_smile:

 

I think that whether you begin with the short vowels vs. all vowel sounds might depend on the age of the child. I only used the short vowel sounds with my girls when they were 2-4. Around age 4, we learned letter combinations (ai, ee, ue, etc.) to make the long vowel sounds. It seemed to be a good fit for what they could absorb.

 

Now that my oldest is a rising Gr. 1, I'm using AAS, which has the advantage of reviewing all of those sounds and ensuring that she can write as well as read them.

[eloquacious]

Hmm. We don't watch "TV" either, but I do own Leap Frog DVDs to watch on the computer... and I can't speak highly enough of what "Baby Frog" has done for my son. Perhaps there's a way to get just the song? YouTube?? "The Ay says ah, they ay says ah, every letter makes a sound, the ay says ah."

 

I do know that Leap Frog has the fridge phonics, and that "sings" the same song, to quote my son.

 

I believe letter names are important, as are sounds, so if it's possible to do both at once, that'd be my advice.

[RahRah]

I didn't realize it when I was doing it with DS, but I did a combo of both....we'd say and play things around sounds letters made, while he was learning his letter names too. Example - da,da,da,da-Dee, daddio! or ah-ah-ah-ah-apple starts with A! We came up with one or two different sayings for each letter of the alphabet.

[Kertie]

I'm going to be wild and crazy and say that names OR names/sounds together is not going to damage your child's learning-to-read process. In fact, I think teaching sounds only is inconsistent with the rest of their little world. I don't point at pictures of farm animals, tell my child what sounds they make, but not the name of the animal. And since in some cases (think vowels), one of the sounds the letters make IS their name...well, I guess I just don't get why it's such a big deal to say "this is the name, this is the sound." People NEED to know the names of letters as well. And yes, I have heard of this dilemma before when I was teaching ESOL to adults. My personal experience in teaching them to read was that, after learning the names of the letters and moving onto the sounds, they were relieved to find out that one of the sounds was something they already knew (the name). My own kids learned the names and the sound simultaneously----one read at 2.5, the other at 4, and the youngest doesn't read yet;).

 

Personally, I think this issue is one of saying tomato/tomahto...and also potentially as opinionated as cloth vs. disposable;). Either way your child will learn to read--just as your child will get potty trained regardless of diaper type. :) :auto:

[Ellie]

For those of you who say sounds, do you only teach "first sounds" (i.e. short vowels) first? I see how that could get them reading CVC words quickly, but most words are not CVC.

 

Or do you show the letter A and give the 3 sounds? "This letter says ah, ay, aw."

All the sounds of each letter.

[La Condessa]

I'm teaching my daughter both simultaneously, but we spend more time on the sounds (short vowels only, at this point). I'm teaching the names by saying, "This is the letter A" or "Where's letter E?", always referring to the names with 'letter __' so that she is less likely to get the names and sounds mixed up.

[endurancerider]

Sounds first. I think it lessons letter sound and proper name confusion. Bob's books and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons were great with my kiddos. Being able to use the knowledge that they are accumulating (reading) as soon as possible, really helps.

Also, if you are concerned about letter direction confusion, you may want to consider teaching cursive before manuscript. After researching this, I wish I would have!

[KristenR]

We did sounds and names simultaneously and never had a problem with it.

[twoxcell]

I vote for learning sounds first.:001_smile: The names are unnecessary for reading.

[teachmejoy]

I say sounds first, too! For young kids, sometimes teaching onely one sound is enough. If they are bright and memorize easily, do all 3 sounds!! I also introduce the names, but we practice the sounds. You can check out the link in my signature for what I did with my DS and am doing with my Dd.

[Persephone]

I hadn't given it much thought until I started reading about programs that start with sounds, and subsequently read about academic studies which suggest that letter names may well interfere with learning to read for some students. Since letter names don't actually help anyone read, I suggest going with sounds first, to play it safe. Besides, then you aren't limited to just the 26 letters. After all, we have about 43 sounds in English and it seems important to treat them all "equally.":) Jolly Phonics is a good program for covering one spelling for each of the 43 sounds, prior to teaching alternate spellings. Letter names can be taught separately from reading lessons, using the alphabet song.

[silliness7]

I say letters first. :D I'm old-fashioned that way.

 

By the time I got around to teaching my children phonics they'd already learned the letter names through...I don't know what. Sesame Street? Dr. Seuss' ABC? The ABC song?

 

But my almost 4yo doesn't know her ABC's yet. Not enough Sesame Street around here I guess. I recently started her with All About Reading and they do names first with the capital letters and then add in sounds the second go-round with the lowercase letters.

[jer2911mom]

What programs teach sounds first? I'm having trouble locating them.

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[ElizabethB]

Both.

 

I used to think sounds first was best, but it is just as easy to teach both at once and seems to be more helpful, especially for learning long vowel sounds.

 

It is a simple concept, and even a 2 year old can learn both. If they are old enough to learn "A sheep says baa," they can learn "An A says ah."

 

If you are using a conventional phonics program, you just teach the short sound of the vowels and later when you teach the long sounds you tell them it has the same sound as the name.

 

I believe that introducing the abstraction and idea of both is beneficial to the brain.

 

It is also very hard to not say the name. For the 6 months or so that I believed those in the "sounds only, sounds first" camp, I tried to only say the sounds but failed about half of the time, it's really hard to talk about letters without mentioning their names.

[TCB]

DD11's reading teacher said sounds first when she was learning at age 4 - is PS in England. Having taught our youngest dd to read I have to agree. I think, at least initially, it can cause some confusion. We started with short vowel sounds and she had been taught some letter names at preschool which lead to a little confusion. My first dd didn't learn letter names for quite some time and she read very well without them.

 

They both read very well so teaching sounds only first seems to work well, and I have heard that there is some study evidence to support that.

[ALB]

We also do both at the same time.

We spent about a week per letter up until around "S", when we accelerated because ds had already picked up the rest on his own. I only teach one sound per letter in the beginning, as I think SWB recommends in WTM. We proceeded to use OPGTR after learning the letters, and it wasn't at all confusing when we got to long vowels. Maybe having learned both the names and the short sounds already makes it a pretty easy transition to "the vowel says its name when...".

But, I agree that it probably does not matter too much which order you use :001_smile:.

[teachmejoy]

What programs teach sounds first? I'm having trouble locating them.

Thanks,

Kathy

 

 

My program, Animal Play, teaches both but focuses on the sounds.

[Colleen in SEVA]

I taught all 5 of mine the names and sounds at the same time (without videos), and they all have been early, strong readers. I teach the letters in groups of 3 or 4, keeping letters that can be confused in different groups. I have used magnets, foam pieces, and puzzle pieces. I teach upper and lower cases at the same time -- with "find the match", "find the letter that says /b/", "say the sounds", etc. They enjoyed these games from a very young age.

 

There are lots of "right" ways to do it. :)

[TracyP]

I will be another one of the dissenters. I do not think either way will hurt a child's ability to read but I don't know how not to teach the letter name. That really takes the fun out of Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom.;)

[Persephone]

What programs teach sounds first? I'm having trouble locating them.

 

Jolly Phonics

Abecedarian, Level A

Phonics International

I See Sam readers

Dancing Bears (but several on this forum, including myself, find this more appropriate for older kids, due to some of the stories)

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Edited June 15, 2011 by Persephone

[Barb_]

My sounds first kids were easier to teach. As many already mentioned, they pick up the names from who-knows-where and I found it easy to train myself to say, "What sound is that?" while pointing to the letter instead of, "What does T say?" I think of it like immersion in a new language. For example, when you look at a picture of a table and you are supposed to think, "mesa" rather than, "What is the spanish word for table?" The intermediate step makes it difficult to put it all together when blending.

 

Inner dialog:

 

"Hmm...that's a C and the C says /k/. That A says /a/. The P says /b/...wait! no! /p/. /c/ - /a/ - /t/

 

CAT!

 

Versus:

 

"Hmm...that's a /c/ and then that's /a/ and there's /t/. CAT!

 

Some kids do the second thing naturally. Most have to transition. Why make it harder than it needs to be?

 

Barb

[jer2911mom]

Jolly Phonics

Abecedarian, Level A

Phonics International

I See Sam readers

Dancing Bears (but several on this forum, including myself, find this more appropriate for older kids, due to some of the stories)

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

 

Thanks!

Kathy

[jer2911mom]

I was surprised when I looked at AAR to see it teaching the capital letters first, then lower case, then sounds. Is anyone using AAR with a sounds-first approach?

 

Thanks,

Kathy

[KatDilan]

Neither, just do Leap Frog Letter Factory every day for 3 weeks and they will have both down pat! My 2 year old learned all her letter sounds and names this way in a remarkably short time. Painless and effective! :001_smile:

:iagree: