Teaching short vowel sounds - HELP!

[AimeeM]

Nico's picking up consonant sounds fairly easily (Reading Eggs, general exposure, etc). We're working through Phonics Pathways and it starts by introducing short vowels. We've been on the first couple games/lessons for a few weeks. His patience is waning. He's doing well with short a, short o, and short u. He's pretty stuck on short e and short i. He's getting impatient because he wants to move on, but I understand why the books says not to move on until these are mastered completely.

The two do sound very similar (short e and short i). Any tricks to help him?

[Starr]

Is your info correct? Is he 3?

[ElizabethB]

starfall, talking letter factory DVD

 

They are very similar sounds, especially if you live in the South. Don Potter has a trick, he pounds on his chest for one, but I forget which or why, I tried to google it but couldn't find it, this has been discussed in the past.

 

I find that it is easier for students to hear the sound when it starts the word as in "in" or "exit" or igloo or end. They are very close in the middle of words like pin and pen.

[NASDAQ]

Those are the hardest.

 

I have mine say it with a word afterwards -- "e, elephant" or "i, indian." I recognise the possible un-PC implications of "Indian," but my first reader wasn't familiar enough with the word "igloo" and consistently mispronounced _that_, and wasn't that a mess. You could also use "itch."

 

After approximately ninety billion times of saying it with the word, the correct sound is imprinted.

[ElizabethB]

_{This website has a nice picture of the differences:}

 

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

 

(Monophthongs, then I and the one below it.)

[MusicMama]

3 years old, if your sig is correct, is pretty young. But if he is persistent in wanting to continue, I have found hand signs to be helpful. I have my kids point their index finger and point upwards, jabbing the air as they say the short i sound. In my ear, the short i is a taller vowel than the short e, and yes, it can be hard to aurally distinguish the two where we live! Since putting a physical movement to the short i, I have not had any issues with my kids confusing the sounds.

[Five More Minutes]

If he's 3, I'd let this rest for a while, as this is most likely a developmental thing that will be much easier later on.

 

If he's older and/or extremely determined to read, then you could add in actions if those aren't already part of your program. We would look at the letter e and say "e, e, egg" and make a motion of cracking an egg; for i, we would probably say "I, i, itch" and scratch our arm.

[AimeeM]

Is your info correct? Is he 3?

Just turned 4 in May.

[AimeeM]

starfall, talking letter factory DVD

 

They are very similar sounds, especially if you live in the South. Don Potter has a trick, he pounds on his chest for one, but I forget which or why, I tried to google it but couldn't find it, this has been discussed in the past.

 

I find that it is easier for students to hear the sound when it starts the word as in "in" or "exit" or igloo or end. They are very close in the middle of words like pin and pen.

We do live in the south :p

Luckily Phonics Pathways has pictures on each short vowel sheet, he just keeps constantly using the two against eachother; he'll say "eggloo" instead of "igloo", for example. I'll try "in" instead of "igloo" and "end" instead of "exercise", lol.

 

Regarding the other questions. I know he's young but he's getting pretty annoyed; the consonants are coming rather easily, as are the other vowel sounds, but he can't progress, really, without "e" and "i". I'm running out of creative juices to find new games for the two sounds, so the doesn't get bored. I'd be happy to shelve phonics for a bit, but he does enjoy the program(s).