Phonics for the young and wiggly

[bullseye]

Hope y'all don't mind a visitor dropping in to ask advice...

 

 

I have a young son with a seemingly excellent visual memory. The first time my husband told me he'd pointed to a word on a sign and read it I thought he must've been mistaken. We've done nothing "academic" with him whatsoever beyond occasionally singing the ABCs. Now, though, I've seen it for myself, and it's starting to happen regularly. And I'm wondering what, if anything, I should do about it. I know he's just recognizing the shapes of words since they're always ones he's been exposed to through books. I'd much rather he learn proper phonics, but if he weren't already figuring it out on his own I'd probably be inclined to delay teaching him for quite awhile.

 

 

Questions for those who have been there, done that:

 

 

- Should I even try to teach him? Or should I just let him keep doing his thing? It occurs to me that reading phonetically requires a completely different skill set than reading by sight, and I don't want to frustrate him if he's not ready. He does tend to pick things up quickly, though, and my instinct says if he can learn animal sounds he can learn letter sounds, too.

 

 

- Does anyone have experience teaching letter sounds to a kid who can't even pronounce half of them yet? Would that just be asking for trouble? He's still in that stage where he requires a translator when talking to anyone who doesn't see him regularly.

 

 

- Any winning strategies for working with a very energetic little guy who's nowhere near ready to sit still and have a lesson? Even when we read books he's constantly jumping up to act out the story, so if we did anything I'd want to keep it light and fun.

 

 

- On the other hand, what if I were to just let him be? What problems would I need to look for down the road in a kid who's teaching himself to read by sight?

 

 

- Might it be possible to go back and teach him phonics later, once he's at least ready to sit still? He's still too young for me to discern whether he'll be the type who likes to understand the logic behind the things he already knows. I'm concerned about him possibly developing bad habits and then not wanting to go back and learn the basics, if that makes any sense.

 

 

Thanks for any advice! I would love to hear all perspectives.

[Five More Minutes]

Hope y'all don't mind a visitor dropping in to ask advice...

 

Questions for those who have been there, done that:

 

 

- Should I even try to teach him? Or should I just let him keep doing his thing? It occurs to me that reading phonetically requires a completely different skill set than reading by sight, and I don't want to frustrate him if he's not ready. He does tend to pick things up quickly, though, and my instinct says if he can learn animal sounds he can learn letter sounds, too.

 

- Any winning strategies for working with a very energetic little guy who's nowhere near ready to sit still and have a lesson? Even when we read books he's constantly jumping up to act out the story, so if we did anything I'd want to keep it light and fun.

 

 

I ended up teaching my daughters phonics at a very young age because they kept begging to be able to read.

 

By luck rather than a lot of research, I ended up using Jolly Phonics, which I think works very well for really young kids. Each phonogram is taught using the sound, and action, and a song, so it was perfect for my very young, wiggly daughters. They begged to "do school" and listened to their Jolly Phonics songs over ... and over ... and over. :001_smile:

 

I would agree with you that reading using phonics uses some different skills than reading by sight; I'd also agree with you that, if your son is ready to identify whole words (and make animal sounds!), then he is probably quite capable of recognizing phonograms and associated sounds. I don't think that learning the phonograms will be frustrating for him if you keep it light and fun.

 

Depending on his enthusiasm, you may have some frustrations when you start having him blend phonograms to read words, especially if he's already recognizing them by sight. I would spend a lot of time playing a game where you say a word one sound at a time (like h - a - t ) and have him "guess" what word you are saying. Then you could move to asking him to read nonsense words to practice his blending.

 

Another thing that I've done with my girls is to shore up their phonics by following along with a very phonics-based spelling curriculum. My eldest in particular moved ahead in her reading so quickly that she outgrew the phonics program before it was completed. By using phonics in our spelling, I can cover that ground without boring her to death.

 

HTH

 

ETA: I also meant to say, "Welcome!"

[SKL]

My dd also has a good visual memory. When she was a tot, besides reading ABC books together, I would tell her the sounds of letters/digraphs in words we saw. Just occasionally as we'd go through our day. For example, during a walk around the block, we'd talk about the letters/sounds in "STOP." When she started reading books, I'd point out phonetic rules when correcting any misread words. We never did formal phonics at all, yet she picked it up through so much association with the printed word.

[acurtis75]

The leap frog letter factory videos are a great first step for learning letters and sounds and the subsequent videos teach words, blending, sentence structure, etc.

 

After that, explode the code is a good gentle introduction.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

This lady's blog is probably exactly what you're looking for. I second the LeapFrog videos. They're great; especially the Talking Words Factory. And the Word Builder Toy is amazing. I recommend it to everyone. The first level teaches letter names and sounds, the second teaches blending and 3 letter words.

[Tracy]

My ds4 is just like this. He was in speech therapy for over a year and still struggles with some of the sounds. He has a very strong visual memory and is trying very hard to read by memorizing what the words look like, and this is leading to a very bad habit of guessing. I agree with you that a child still has to learn phonics, because if he continues down this road, eventually it will catch up with him, and may become a struggling reader if he doesn't somehow learn the phonics.

 

My dd7 is using SWR, so it has been very easy to include my ds4 in our daily phonogram review. And since dd7 is pretty good with the phonograms, I even gear the review more toward teaching him. He now knows all of the sounds of all of the single letters and a few of the multi-letter phonograms. As part of SWR, I am also teaching him to write the phonograms. This has proven to be extremely important for my particular ds. When I try to get him to read to me, he gets very frustrated. But when I have him write a word in the saltbox, telling him the individual sounds he has to write, he can do it without the frustration. And that way, he gets a lot of reading practice by actually writing the words.

 

My mommy intuition tells me that these steps are absolutely vital for this child, because I am fighting against his very strong tendency to learn whole words rather than phonics.

[bullseye]

Wow, thanks everyone for your feedback. Great ideas, and I'll be looking into some of the resources you've suggested. Another question - since I am the type of person who wants to understand the logic behind what I'm doing, and I've never taught anyone to read before, can anyone suggest some parent reading? (theYoungerMrsWarde, I haven't had time yet to check out that blog, so forgive me if it covers this.)

[Tracy]

Many people recommend The Logic of English. I haven't personally read it, but I understand that it is based on the same basic method that SWR uses. I don't think that the LOE program has a reading component for young children at this point, but the book would provide a very good background for you as a parent. You can also check out the

on YouTube.

[2smartones]

The leap frog letter factory videos are a great first step for learning letters and sounds and the subsequent videos teach words, blending, sentence structure, etc.

 

After that, explode the code is a good gentle introduction.

 

Ditto. I love Leapfrog & ETC for little guys.

 

I didn't "teach" my kids to read. I corrected them when they guessed wrong, but rather than coming right out and telling them what the word was, I'd tell them it was close, and then point out the phonetic (or non-phonetic) piece of the word they missed. If that didn't work, I'd write or spell the (wrong) word they said, and then write/spell the right word next to it. The almost always figured out the puzzle on their own.

[Crimson Wife]

My second child had an articulation disorder but he was still able to learn the letters and their sounds at a young age. He couldn't necessarily pronounce the sounds, but if I asked him to find the letter that made a particular sound he could quickly find the correct one.

 

A great resource for "hands-on" phonics work is the Evan-Moor Take it to Your Seat Phonics Centers series. I would start with the PreK/K book.

[jenbrdsly]

This lady's blog is probably exactly what you're looking for. I second the LeapFrog videos. They're great; especially the Talking Words Factory. And the Word Builder Toy is amazing. I recommend it to everyone. The first level teaches letter names and sounds, the second teaches blending and 3 letter words.

 

 

Thank you! :tongue_smilie:

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

Thank you! :tongue_smilie:

 

I have your blog in my signature :D (I hope that's okay.) I recommend you and the Word Builder toy I found out about because of you to every parent I know. (Hmm, maybe I could get LeapFrog to pay me for all the advertising I do for them....jk.)

[Guest Keenan]

The leap frog letter factory videos are a great first step for learning letters and sounds and the subsequent videos teach words, blending, sentence structure, etc.

 

Have you tried OpenReading.org? We have free phonics lesson that include games, songs and video.

[Tanikit]

My DD learnt all the letter sound by 18 months of age - she wasn't even speaking in sentences yet. My 16 month old now has been watching my elder learn more advanced phonics (she's seen phonograms since before she was 1) and knows the sh sound though she most certainly can't pronounce it (she says "sss" instead of "sh") so yes you can teach phonics before they can articulate the sounds.

 

You can also introduce blending to very young children provided you don't test them. It is more phonological awareness - you sound out words for them at different speeds and it helps with both articulation and reading. Good luck.

 

My elder DD started sight reading though knew the letter sounds at the same time. I started blending with her at 2.5 years old and long vowels at 3.5 with further phonics as we went along. She still sight reads a lot (she'll be 5 in Sept) but can sound out most new words by herself.

 

As for the sitting still - they don't need to - I stuck flashcards on the wall and pointed them out as she walked (or ran) past. I also pointed out letters during nappy changing time or during bath time when she was slightly more contained - using magnetic letters on the fridge or laminated letters in the bath works well and they enjoy it. Don't make him be still - that will NOT work!

Edited June 12, 2012 by Tanikit

[AnneC]

For some of the reasons to teach reading phonetically, read some of Diane McGuinness' works (In particular, this one: Early Reading Instruction: What Science Really Tells Us about How to Teach Reading, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004), I taught my 3 older children to read using her methodology. My younger daughter learned to read last year at school here in the UK aged 4. She was taught using Jolly Phonics which is very popular with the schools here.

 

HTH. I've been out of the homeschooling loop for the last couple of years because our kids have been in school but we're gearing up to homeschool again from July.

 

For what it is worth, and I'm going through this again now with my youngest. Teaching phonetic sounds is easy and kids pick it up as easily as they pick up any other picture/word association. What you need to watch for is if they are ready for the process of connecting the sounds to make words (blending). My youngest knows all his sounds and can spell some words but isn't quite there with blending sounds together to make a word. Because of all the groundwork we've put in though, once it clicks, he will fly.

[lizbusby]

The leap frog letter factory videos are a great first step for learning letters and sounds and the subsequent videos teach words, blending, sentence structure, etc.

 

I have to say that I find the Leap Frog videos absolutely painful. Very repetitive with no real storytelling quality. But I have high standards for even children's TV, so that may just be me. For what it's worth, for learning to read, I much prefer the PBS series Word World, which used to be on Netflix, but can currently be purchased cheaply on Amazon instant video. Entertaining, clever, non-repetitive. This combined with Starfall.com games taught my son all the phonics he knows quite quickly and easily while I was feeding baby #2.

[serendipitous journey]

 

- Any winning strategies for working with a very energetic little guy who's nowhere near ready to sit still and have a lesson? Even when we read books he's constantly jumping up to act out the story, so if we did anything I'd want to keep it light and fun.

 

 

I thought I'd mention something about just this part (and also say, if the child is happy and well without academics, no need to rush it):

 

When Button was younger, he needed some formal instruction regularly to be a happy person. We would do one math problem, or a very small chunk of phonics, then run around the house. Or run to one of the cars and back again (if we were outside). Or some sort of micro-tag; or have him do a mini-obstacle course over the couch. This worked pretty well. Still do it, partway through a long chunk of math or handwriting.

[jenbrdsly]

I have to say that I find the Leap Frog videos absolutely painful. Very repetitive with no real storytelling quality. But I have high standards for even children's TV, so that may just be me. For what it's worth, for learning to read, I much prefer the PBS series Word World, which used to be on Netflix, but can currently be purchased cheaply on Amazon instant video. Entertaining, clever, non-repetitive. This combined with Starfall.com games taught my son all the phonics he knows quite quickly and easily while I was feeding baby #2.

 

 

I think all phonics videos are annoying. :tongue_smilie:By beef with "Word World" was that they showed things in uppercase. But maybe that was just the first season. I really wish they would bring "Between the Lions" back.