Phonemic awareness?

[kama]

What are some ways to increase phonemic awareness? My daughter has a lot of trouble with stuff like this and always has. She just started getting the hang of rhyming a few months ago. (she is 5 1/2), She still struggles with it but she gets the basic concept now. She is completely unable to answer questions like this: "what is the first sound in bat" she can't answer it at all she tries but she just can't separate the sounds.

 

We have been working (slowly) on websters speller, prior to that we had done the first 20 lessons of OPG and then the reading lessons (I think about 4 of them) she can read the first few bob books but we stopped doing that because I am 99% sure she was sight reading. She used to play reading eggs quite a bit and I am pretty sure she learned a number of sight words from it. Often times when she is trying to read she will look at a word (like dot) and decide it is a different similar looking word without trying to sound it out (like dog). So we have quit reading eggs and stopped the early readers and are working only on websters for about 10 minutes a day.

 

I read to her all the time and she will sit and listen to a story for hours. We read poetry too and she loves that. She just hates the "games" where you say the first sound or last sound of a word because she never can figure it out and she gets mad if I even try to play them with her. Any ideas for things I can do with her to increase phonemic awareness that won't bother her? Or should I just keep moving slowly through webster's? I have been following ElizabethB's websters plan and we have worked our way up to "week 5" CA CE CI CO CU CY. She does fine with these lessons, she needs occasional reminding but most of the time she reads what I am writing on the white board as I write it without any assistance.

Edited August 4, 2011 by kama

[veggiegal]

Peggy Kaye's book Games For Reading has a section with games specifically aimed at increasing phonemic awareness. (I think she calls the section games for the ear). There's also a good selection of games on this site:

 

http://www.soundreaders.ca/step1.html

[ElizabethB]

Here is a good phonemic awareness thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127043

[rocketgirl]

I did many different phonemic awareness activities when I taught ps Kdg (8 years). I have 2 favorites. Have you tried, say it fast? I would say these sounds..../k/.../a/...../t/..... Then my students would say it fast, CAT! After they "got" that, (like after some time) we'd move to learning how to "break it down" (because it is more difficult), I say "cat" and I and my students (use our fingers to count, in slow mo, as we sound ... /k/.../a/.../t/. (Then we are also counting how many sounds are in that word) You have probably done these, but when I hear that your daughter doesn't like/want/or know how to answer, "what is the first sound you hear" I think maybe they are skipping segmenting and that would make it hard. In order to be able to answer a question like, "what is the first sound you hear in the word ball?" She needs to know that the word ball is made up of different sounds..I would dare to say that if at 5 1/2 she gets rhyming but hasn't mastered it, wait on the sound games and just keep rhyming. Often the ways we ask kids to dissect what they hear gets confusing. There were many times I'd ask for kids to dissect what they heard in some way & they'd do a different way..i.e. confusing opposites and rhymes. Most of all you want her to feel confident to try new things so always build her up by focusing on what she can do well.

[BatmansWife]

I don't know how helpful this will be, but what about using letter tiles (or better yet, take a look at TouchPhonics and their touch units). This way, when you talk about the word bat....you can physically move the tiles or touch units and show her that the word is made up of the three sounds b, a, t. Maybe "seeing" it rather than trying to figure it out in her head would help her. I will be starting TouchPhonics with my daughter next month and we are both excited about it. On the same page I linked to you, the last item on that page is a book called Literacy Leaders: 10 Minute Lessons for Phonological Awareness. The samples look really good (it might be the stuff your dd doesn't like yet, but maybe she would benefit anyway). We are going to be using that book also, in fact it's recommended to use this along with TouchPhonics, Primary Phonics, or ETC (all by EPS Publishers). Here's some more info on TouchPhonics. See a video of it here. This program isn't just for stugglers, by the way.

Edited August 5, 2011 by ~AprilMay~

[MerryAtHope]

A few ideas:

 

One, try to focus first on words where you can drag out the sound. M is a good letter, S, R, F, L, N, V, and Z can also be dragged out a bit with some success.

 

You might see if she can play a different kind of same sound game--rather than identify the same sound, see if she can think of other words that start with the same sound. You can play "going to the grocery store" or "going to the zoo," and thinking of something that starts with ____ (name a sound). See how many each of you can come up with for that sound. Then try another sound.

 

Another game I used to play was oral segmenting--I would say two or three sounds and see if they could blend them into a word. You can also play the opposite--say a word & have her segment. She may find that one harder though. Do examples for her, and let her play where she says the sounds or the word and you do the blending or segmenting. My kids used to love choosing random sounds and have me try to blend them, LOL!

 

Here's an article on developing phonemic awareness, it sounds like you are doing many of these things but maybe something will be new in there. The tokens might help her to see she's trying to segment a word into X number of sounds. You might have to do lots and lots of examples where she says a word and you segment. Another thing you can do besides the tokens is to put paper squares on the floor (or "Lily Pads" if she might like being a frog, or stepping stones for a princess, or...). That lets her know how many sounds are in a word. You can say a word and step from square to square to show her how to do it. Then have her try to repeat those sounds. After modeling for awhile, then see if she'd like to try one on her own.

 

You might also check out All About Reading, which has a big focus on phonemic awareness activities--look at the samples of the "Language Exploration" activities in each step in the teacher's manual for ideas or to see if that might be something that would help her.

 

Hang in there! This is harder for some kids than for others, she'll get it. Merry :-)

[forty-two]

My dd's in a similar spot - late recognizing rhyme, all the standard "beginning" PA activities are beyond her - and we are working through Webster's, too, with similar success (though haven't gotten as far ). Anyway, I bought this book - Phonemic Awareness in Young Children - b/c it starts with far simpler activities/games, ones that she *can* do, and the progression to the standard ones and beyond makes sense to me (and I'm crap at coming up with PA games on my own beyond the common handful that are all I saw online). It's meant to be used alongside any reading program, so I'm going to continue Webster's while adding this in. (It just arrived yesterday, so I've no btdt experience, yet, but it's well reviewed and cheap, esp used, so thought I'd throw it out there.)

 

ETA: I've also been modelling blending and picking out phonemes - she loves to write and is always having me spell words, and I try to talk through hearing the sound and which phonogram is used to spell it. Hopefully it is sinking in some, even though she mostly can't do it herself.

Edited August 5, 2011 by forty-two

[SnMomof7]

Honestly, I took the 'easy' way out and bought AAR Pre-1 for my second daughter. She just turned 5 in April and though she knew all of her short letter sounds, the phonological awareness that leads to blending just wasn't there.

 

I know you can do it by yourself, but if I don't have something scripted, open-and-go for me it doesn't get done, so I really appreciate that some fun, phonological awareness activities are all laid out for us to do together - she thinks it's all a game and she has made HUGE strides.

[ClassicMom]

My son has really struggled with this as he has autism. We made great strides over the summer using Phonics Pathways by Dorbooks. It starts with consonant sounds and then slowly moves to short vowels and then cvc words, etc.

 

Awesome book!

[houseofkids&pets]

My son enjoyed Earobics Step 1 software (Home Edition). It has a variety of games with cute characters that focus on specific skills (phonological awareness, phonics, auditory processing). It tracks your child's progress and increases in complexity as they achieve mastery. I bought it used on ebay, but it costs about $60 new. If you google it, you will find a lot more info. Earobics is considered to be a successful program and it is also used in schools and clinics.

 

Good luck!!

Michelle