How do you teach blending?

[A home for their hearts]

I started to teach my ds7 to read a couple of weeks ago using Abecedarian. He is having a lot of trouble blending the sounds into words. A lot of times after saying the individual sounds in the word he will then blend the last two sounds in the word. For example if the word is cat, he will say /c/ /a/ /t/ and then say /at/. When I say that's not right he'll start guessing and saying any other word with at in it. I'll correct him and say look at the first sound, I'll ask him what it is, then I'll say, is that sound in the word you just said? I usually end up having to stretch the sounds out for him slowly at first and then faster until I've blended the word for him! Any ideas on how to help him with this important skill? Thanks!

[Karen in CO]

The cartoon road to reading, aka Leap Frog videos. They are terrific. The Talking Word Factory is the best thing I've ever used for blending cvc words.

[redsquirrel]

I modeled it for them. I would let them do the individual sounds 'c' 'a' 't' , yes! That is 'c' 'a' 't'! Good job. Caaaaaat.

 

It just seemed to come with confidence. it takes a lot longer to say each sound. They figured it out after a while. My second son did take longer than my first but it happened. I just kept modeling it again and again.

[Critterfixer]

I usually end up having to stretch the sounds out for him slowly at first and then faster until I've blended the word for him! Any ideas on how to help him with this important skill? Thanks!

 

Lots and lots of patience. And encouragement. Also, if you think he really needs the practice you might actually do your phonics several times a day in ten to fifteen minute slots.

Also use any opportunity presented to blend words when you are out and about. I will stop in the grocery to read a sign with my boys. Most helpful of all are books or signs that they already know what it says from memory. I'll break it down phonetically, sort of a "blending backwards" thing.

[Whereneverever]

By practicing blending orally, not with letters on a page. Once they really get putting it together add the words on the page back in.

 

It's a LOT to look at the letter, know the letter, know the sound, AND blend.

 

Break it up. :)

[Crimson Wife]

It's been my observation that the child needs to be cognitively ready for it. One day it'll just "click" and he or she will suddenly take off.

[lollie010]

We made up a game for riding in the car. I would call out the individual sounds in a word and they would squish it together. I would just use random words that I thought of while driving and they would race to see who could squish it together the quickest. I got some great ideas from "Wow I'm Reading" by Williamson Publishing. If I can find it I will post some of the different games we used.

[specialmama]

With a whisk or hand mixer. :D

Sorry, I type without a filter. :tongue_smilie:

 

I agree the LeapFrog videos are great!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

For example if the word is cat, he will say /c/ /a/ /t/ and then say /at/. When I say that's not right he'll start guessing and saying any other word with at in it. I'll correct him and say look at the first sound, I'll ask him what it is, then I'll say, is that sound in the word you just said? I usually end up having to stretch the sounds out for him slowly at first and then faster until I've blended the word for him! Any ideas on how to help him with this important skill? Thanks!

 

 

That is the same thing my ds does. He will be 7 in Oct. I have my son say the sounds faster and faster until he can hear the word. If he can not hear the word I say it for him as I run my finger under the sounds. It works for him. Just takes time. Be patient!

[Barb_]

We made up a game for riding in the car. I would call out the individual sounds in a word and they would squish it together. I would just use random words that I thought of while driving and they would race to see who could squish it together the quickest. I got some great ideas from "Wow I'm Reading" by Williamson Publishing. If I can find it I will post some of the different games we used.

 

:iagree: We call it the word stretch game. Try starting out with words having 3 sounds and maybe a 1 second pause between sounds. Work up to words with 5-6 sounds and longer pauses between sounds. I think I first heard about this in Reading Reflex. My younger kids caught on to blending much faster than the older ones who hadn't been exposed to the idea in this manner first.

 

Barb

[Kuovonne]

Leap Frog ... Talking Word Factory

 

By practicing blending orally, not with letters on a page.

 

We made up a game for riding in the car.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

This combination worked well for both of my kids.

[happyhomemaker]

I taught my kids with Abeka in K. I have some issues with the program, but one thing I did like was that it taught blend ladders. So dc would learn b=/b/. Then they would put together that sound with all of the short vowel sounds to start off. I would show them ba and sound /b/ /a/. Then do the same with the rest of the vowels. When they could do ba, be, bi, bo, bu easily, we added a letter at the end to make a word. They would recognize and blend the first 2 letters quickly and then just add the last letter. I hope the way I wrote that down makes sense. It worked really well. You can buy blend ladder flash cards from Abeka, but it is very easy to make your own. We would sound out up and down the ladder for fluency. Maybe something like that would help your child include the first letter when sounding out a word.

[Erika]

I used the Abeka blend cards.

[eloquacious]

Firstly, has your child mastered two letter blends? I've found the free Blend Phonics text (see http://donpotter.net/Blend%20Phonics.htm) to be a great resource, and Phonics Pathways works on it for quite a while before moving to three-letter blends.

 

There is a train game in PP that basically has little "train cars" with letters (or blank ones to write letters in) where you can attach the train cars to each other and form the word one letter at a time.

[eloquacious]

The thing with the frog is that The Talking Words Factory teaches word family style blending, so forming the at or am or ap and adding beginning consonants to it. In general I favor a left to right one letter or phonogram at a time blending, especially as my wee man has eye tracking problems. Nevertheless, giving him the general idea by way of the frog definitely proved helpful. He certainly does love his "Baby fwog." ;)

[eloquacious]

Also, if you want blend ladders, look at Confessions of a Homeschooler's K4 expansion to her Letter of the Week curriculum. She's got them here:

 

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/09/blend-ladders.html

[eloquacious]

The cartoon road to reading, aka Leap Frog videos.

:lol::lol::lol:

[eloquacious]

Also, if you want to practice blending orally and you have an iPhone or iPad, may I recommend the Preschool University Magic Reading and Magic Spelling apps?

 

 

The Magic Reading app progresses from oral blending (giving you sounds but not letters) to segmenting (saying the word and asking you to produce the individual sounds) to reading (in which the letters are presented and you are asked to put them together into words.)

 

You can see my son working with this app here:

 

This is a video of level 2 of the reading app:

 

 

[Mrs Twain]

It sounds like you have more than enough recommendations, but I'll just add that Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons has a great method for teaching how to blend sounds.

[ErinMarie123]

I taught my kids with Abeka in K. I have some issues with the program, but one thing I did like was that it taught blend ladders. So dc would learn b=/b/. Then they would put together that sound with all of the short vowel sounds to start off. I would show them ba and sound /b/ /a/. Then do the same with the rest of the vowels. When they could do ba, be, bi, bo, bu easily, we added a letter at the end to make a word.

 

Horizons does something similar to this...but doesn't overtly use ladders.

 

When I first read your post I immediately thought of the part on 'Between the Lions' where the two knights crash into each other to blend a word. My boys love that show...and so do I, except for the creepy puppet whose pants are too big. :)

[MerryAtHope]

Work on oral blending first. Start with just two sounds, since he can do that well now it seems, and have him blend those. Then try some 3-sound words. Note that you don't have to stick to 3-letter words--kite only has 3 sounds. Say the sounds segmented and see if he can guess the word. When he can blend well orally, then try blending on paper again.

 

Also, reverse the game--have him say 3 sounds for you to blend. My kids used to love this because they would pick sounds that didn't make a word, and then laugh at what I said! But this is important too--they are learning how to pick apart words and how sounds go together. You can also practice oral segmenting--say a word and see if he can guess the individual sounds in that word. Make it game-like and have fun with this. Also let him say a word for you to segment. And so-on.

 

Another thing you can do with segmenting is say a word, and have him hop for each sound as he says it. You can start easy and put one square on the floor for each sound (he can be a frog hopping from lily pad to lily pad if he likes). When he's getting the hang of it, have several squares on the floor & he will have to identify how many sounds there are as well as say them. Then do the opposite--say the sounds, have him hop and repeat them, and then have him say the word at the end. If he misses a sound, instead of saying he's wrong, let him know that he got 2 of the 3 sounds, can he try again?

 

Hang in there! Merry :-)

[MusicMama]

I have found that trying to blend letters is too specific for a young reader. I started with compound word. I would say "side (pause) walk. Babs, can you say that fast?" she would respond "Sidewalk!" We played this "game" a lot, using different compound words. Then we moved down to syllables. Sis-ter, walk-ing, ma-ma etc. She picked up on it immediately. Then we moved down to letters, again, she picked up on it immediately. One afternoon of that, and she was blending much, much, easier. She had struggled with the exact same problem you described. I got this verbal exercise from 100EZ lessons. It worked wonders.

[JessReplanted]

I taught my kids with Abeka in K. I have some issues with the program, but one thing I did like was that it taught blend ladders. So dc would learn b=/b/. Then they would put together that sound with all of the short vowel sounds to start off. I would show them ba and sound /b/ /a/. Then do the same with the rest of the vowels. When they could do ba, be, bi, bo, bu easily, we added a letter at the end to make a word. They would recognize and blend the first 2 letters quickly and then just add the last letter. I hope the way I wrote that down makes sense. It worked really well. You can buy blend ladder flash cards from Abeka, but it is very easy to make your own. We would sound out up and down the ladder for fluency. Maybe something like that would help your child include the first letter when sounding out a word.

 

 

:iagree:

I also use Abeka's method for teaching reading. I think it is tedious, but it really does work. I made my own letter blend charts, and we would 'sing' them each day. Eventually the blends just start to click and suddenly the child is able to read words.

[ElizabethB]

I would try starting with the syllables of Webster's Speller, it's much easier to blend two letters together than the commonly taught CVC words. I also would start with the easiest letters to blend.

 

The easiest letters to blend are m, n, l, and r, and long vowels are easier to blend than short vowels. They also have the advantage of being both the name and sound of the letter. In the syllabary (the start of 2 letter syllables for Webster's Speller), the syllables ending in a vowel are pronounced long, so ma and ba are pronounced long as in ma-ker and ba-ker.

 

So, here are the easiest syllables to begin with to teach blending:

 

1. ma me mi mo mu my; na ne ni no nu ny; la le li lo lu ly; ra re ri ro ru ry

(remember, the a in a syllable is long as in ma-ker, na-ture, la-kers, ra-di-ant)

 

then short vowels

2. am em im om um; an en in on un

 

It takes a lot of practice for some children before they get the blending.

 

Also, when you are blending, you the sounds you make do not exactly equal the sounds in the words. It is impossible to make a b without a bit of an uh sound. You can say less of an uh sound at the end, but you cannot make a pure b sound in isolation that matches the sound of b in a word. M, n, l, and r (l and r before the vowels, after the vowels they alter the sound of the vowel) match a lot better, that's why they're easiest to learn to blend with.

 

A good book that shows blending well is Burnz' Step by Step Primer, free from Don Potter. (P. 11 is the first page showing a "picture" of blending.) Don's copy of Blend Phonics also has good instructions for teaching blending:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/blend_phonics.html

 

You can work on spelling while you're waiting for blending to click, both my children could spell for months before they could blend.

[KristenR]

With a whisk or hand mixer. :D

Sorry, I type without a filter. :tongue_smilie:

 

I agree the LeapFrog videos are great!

 

Lol. That's what I had in mind when I came up with this little game for my dd.

[boscopup]

I would try starting with the syllables of Webster's Speller, it's much easier to blend two letters together than the commonly taught CVC words. I also would start with the easiest letters to blend.

 

:iagree: Webster's Speller got us going a lot quicker, and a side benefit... I didn't have to teach "a" and "the" as sight words. We were used to doing long vowels for open syllables and short vowels for closed syllables, so I just had to teach the "th" sound, then phonetically sound out those words for use in sentences. :)

 

While I use other programs also, Webster's is something I will definitely use with child #3. Starting with open and closed syllables is so beneficial, and it will be helpful when we get to multisyllable words as well (we're not there yet... still sounding out cvc words, but starting to recognize some of them on sight).

[Laura Corin]

We worked a lot on 'reverse blending' before looking at words. So we worked out (together) what the sounds were in 'cat' without looking at the written word. We did that with a lot of words for several weeks. When it came to actually reading words, the blending happened instantly.

 

Laura

[grace'smom]

:iagree: Webster's Speller got us going a lot quicker, and a side benefit... I didn't have to teach "a" and "the" as sight words. We were used to doing long vowels for open syllables and short vowels for closed syllables, so I just had to teach the "th" sound, then phonetically sound out those words for use in sentences. :)

 

While I use other programs also, Webster's is something I will definitely use with child #3. Starting with open and closed syllables is so beneficial, and it will be helpful when we get to multisyllable words as well (we're not there yet... still sounding out cvc words, but starting to recognize some of them on sight).

 

:iagree:

[grace'smom]

I would try starting with the syllables of Webster's Speller, it's much easier to blend two letters together than the commonly taught CVC words. I also would start with the easiest letters to blend.

 

The easiest letters to blend are m, n, l, and r, and long vowels are easier to blend than short vowels. They also have the advantage of being both the name and sound of the letter. In the syllabary (the start of 2 letter syllables for Webster's Speller), the syllables ending in a vowel are pronounced long, so ma and ba are pronounced long as in ma-ker and ba-ker.

 

So, here are the easiest syllables to begin with to teach blending:

 

1. ma me mi mo mu my; na ne ni no nu ny; la le li lo lu ly; ra re ri ro ru ry

(remember, the a in a syllable is long as in ma-ker, na-ture, la-kers, ra-di-ant)

 

then short vowels

2. am em im om um; an en in on un

 

It takes a lot of practice for some children before they get the blending.

 

Also, when you are blending, you the sounds you make do not exactly equal the sounds in the words. It is impossible to make a b without a bit of an uh sound. You can say less of an uh sound at the end, but you cannot make a pure b sound in isolation that matches the sound of b in a word. M, n, l, and r (l and r before the vowels, after the vowels they alter the sound of the vowel) match a lot better, that's why they're easiest to learn to blend with.

 

A good book that shows blending well is Burnz' Step by Step Primer, free from Don Potter. (P. 11 is the first page showing a "picture" of blending.) Don's copy of Blend Phonics also has good instructions for teaching blending:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/blend_phonics.html

 

You can work on spelling while you're waiting for blending to click, both my children could spell for months before they could blend.

 

:iagree: Webster's is awesome!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Starfall's -an and -at play helped my ds get it.

 

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f

[Critterfixer]

Webster's IS awesome. It helped my ds7 boys a good deal, as did lots and lots and lots of short practice. One of mine loved to play on Starfall, the other, not so much.

[Geo]

By practicing blending orally, not with letters on a page. Once they really get putting it together add the words on the page back in.

 

It's a LOT to look at the letter, know the letter, know the sound, AND blend.

 

Break it up. :)

 

:iagree:

Reading Reflex has children breaking down tons of short cvc words orally BEFORE they do any reading lessons. You ask the child to "Guess what word"? Then sound out POT...P..AW...T, etc. Once they get really good, you trade places and the ask you to guess the word. It teaches phonemic awareness. My children who I did this with definitely had an easier time blending.

[mom31257]

I taught my kids with Abeka in K. I have some issues with the program, but one thing I did like was that it taught blend ladders. So dc would learn b=/b/. Then they would put together that sound with all of the short vowel sounds to start off. I would show them ba and sound /b/ /a/. Then do the same with the rest of the vowels. When they could do ba, be, bi, bo, bu easily, we added a letter at the end to make a word. They would recognize and blend the first 2 letters quickly and then just add the last letter. I hope the way I wrote that down makes sense. It worked really well. You can buy blend ladder flash cards from Abeka, but it is very easy to make your own. We would sound out up and down the ladder for fluency. Maybe something like that would help your child include the first letter when sounding out a word.

:iagree: I think the 2 sounds blended first is a great way to begin. Dd and ds both learned blending with this method (only in Pre-K, though). Here is a link to an A Beka Blend book that is very handy and affordable. It's just blends to sound out, then it moves into words. If you have a hotel meeting near you, ordering there gives you free shipping.

[janainaz]

TOPGTR has you cover up sounds and introduce them as they are to be read together. For the word 'branch' you would cover up the entire word except for the 'br' and have your child say 'bruh' instead of 'buh'-'rrr' separately. Every time my son would say the letters individually, I would just correct him and make him repeat as it should be read.

[raceNzanesmom]

Reading Reflex has children breaking down tons of short cvc words orally BEFORE they do any reading lessons. You ask the child to "Guess what word"? Then sound out POT...P..AW...T, etc. Once they get really good, you trade places and the ask you to guess the word. It teaches phonemic awareness. My children who I did this with definitely had an easier time blending.

 

We're loving Reading Reflex!

 

Be patient, practice gently.

[purduemeche]

Lots and lots of patience. And encouragement. Also, if you think he really needs the practice you might actually do your phonics several times a day in ten to fifteen minute slots.

Also use any opportunity presented to blend words when you are out and about. I will stop in the grocery to read a sign with my boys. Most helpful of all are books or signs that they already know what it says from memory. I'll break it down phonetically, sort of a "blending backwards" thing.

 

:iagree:

[A home for their hearts]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas! I will work some more with him on phonemic awareness. I think Abecedarian, which is a phono-graphic approach, may be hindering him. It really emphasis each individual sound in a word, so much so that I think it leaves out how to blend. I think I may need to rethink my approach.

 

 

I would try starting with the syllables of Webster's Speller, it's much easier to blend two letters together than the commonly taught CVC words. I also would start with the easiest letters to blend.

 

The easiest letters to blend are m, n, l, and r, and long vowels are easier to blend than short vowels. They also have the advantage of being both the name and sound of the letter. In the syllabary (the start of 2 letter syllables for Webster's Speller), the syllables ending in a vowel are pronounced long, so ma and ba are pronounced long as in ma-ker and ba-ker.

 

So, here are the easiest syllables to begin with to teach blending:

 

1. ma me mi mo mu my; na ne ni no nu ny; la le li lo lu ly; ra re ri ro ru ry

(remember, the a in a syllable is long as in ma-ker, na-ture, la-kers, ra-di-ant)

 

then short vowels

2. am em im om um; an en in on un

 

It takes a lot of practice for some children before they get the blending.

 

Also, when you are blending, you the sounds you make do not exactly equal the sounds in the words. It is impossible to make a b without a bit of an uh sound. You can say less of an uh sound at the end, but you cannot make a pure b sound in isolation that matches the sound of b in a word. M, n, l, and r (l and r before the vowels, after the vowels they alter the sound of the vowel) match a lot better, that's why they're easiest to learn to blend with.

 

A good book that shows blending well is Burnz' Step by Step Primer, free from Don Potter. (P. 11 is the first page showing a "picture" of blending.) Don's copy of Blend Phonics also has good instructions for teaching blending:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/blend_phonics.html

 

You can work on spelling while you're waiting for blending to click, both my children could spell for months before they could blend.

 

I was wondering if it is possible to combine both blend phonics and webster speller? Are the two approaches similiar? I don't want to confuse him any more.

[ElizabethB]

Thanks for all the replies and ideas! I will work some more with him on phonemic awareness. I think Abecedarian, which is a phono-graphic approach, may be hindering him. It really emphasis each individual sound in a word, so much so that I think it leaves out how to blend. I think I may need to rethink my approach.

 

 

 

 

I was wondering if it is possible to combine both blend phonics and webster speller? Are the two approaches similiar? I don't want to confuse him any more.

 

Yes, totally possible!

 

In fact, the program on my how to tutor page gives explicit instructions in how to combine the two and integrate syllables into Blend Phonics, everything you need is linked at the end, the explicit instructions are link #4 at the end.