really a mistake to use mneumonics for letter sounds??

[lacell]

The SWR manual is pretty adamant that it's a bad idea to do anything at all to clutter the letter to sound association in the mind of a child, such as using pictures to help a child remember the letter sounds. Unfortunately, I have a couple children who have a very hard time remembering things in isolation. It's not impossible, but it takes enormous repetition. I really like the way the Recipe for Reading K workbook uses tracing letters superimposed on images. For example, the "c" is on top of a cat's face. So anyway, I don't disagree that it's ideal to avoid this so that the child's mind isn't slowed down by thinking "c...cat...kuh", but I suspect that for children who learn this way, they do eventually drop that and develop a more speedy letter to sound association. My question is do you all think they will drop it eventually or is it as harmful as the SWR manual makes it sound?

[almondbutterandjelly]

Not harmful.  Visual aids are not a crutch.  They are a help to learning.  Some kids are very visual, and need the picture association.

[JessReplanted]

Oh goodness.  In our house we swear by the magic of Leap Frog Letter Factory, and that is all about associating letters with sounds by pictures and phrases: Flying F's, W says "W..W..W.. What's happening dude?"   It is very effective.

[lacell]

Do you feel like your kids have instant recall of letter sounds after using the DVD? It seems to me that thousands of kids have watched that video or have seen classroom wall cards with pictures next to the letter and are reading well.

[almondbutterandjelly]

My dd learned her letter sounds from Leap Frog Letter Factory.  It is excellent.

[forty-two]

Do you feel like your kids have instant recall of letter sounds after using the DVD? It seems to me that thousands of kids have watched that video or have seen classroom wall cards with pictures next to the letter and are reading well.

 

We've watched the Leap Frog Letter Factory videos umpteen zillion times, and nothing they learned (if they learned anything) transferred at all to reading.  Didn't do any harm, either - it was just completely ineffective all the way around.  Kind of disappointing, because they get such rave reviews, but oh well.  Makes me glad I treated them as entertainment instead of letting them be part of school time, though. 

[lacell]

My middle child has watched the videos 2 times and has already doubled her letter sounds. I think she learns very well by song. She sings a lot. I guess every child is just different.

[Guest]

Yes they do eventually stop doing that. People are adamant about a lot of things.

[mathmarm]

I was taught the "A is for apple" way and I learned to read just fine.

For my son, we didn't use the letter names, just the sounds and he's learning to read just fine also.

 

[forty-two]

My middle child has watched the videos 2 times and has already doubled her letter sounds. I think she learns very well by song. She sings a lot. I guess every child is just different.

 

Glad they are helping :).  I don't think it was the learning-via-song thing (the girls sing all the time) but more that auditory learning for kids who seem to have auditory processing issues isn't likely to go all that well ;).  (Random thing - the Letter Factory videos don't have closed captioning.  Guess it makes sense because it's aimed at non-readers ;), but I know this because my oldest puts captioning on for everything (so do I - much, much easier to process auditory input with the additional visual input) and tried to do so for the LeapFrog videos, only to find it was a no-go :().

 

Also, the whole "put sounds together to make words" thing turned out to be hugely difficult for my girls - oldest dd knew her letter sounds since she was two, but she didn't figure out that /c/ /a/ /t/ put together makes /cat/ - that they were the same thing - till she was past 6 (after much work on both our parts).  (That was what I was hoping she'd learn from LeapFrog, but it ended up taking a *lot* more than a video alone could offer.)

Edited January 7, 2016 by forty-two

[MerryAtHope]

I think it depends on the age of a child. Yes, the goal is for them to go right from phonogram to sound, but very young students often benefit from some scaffolding to those sounds. (AAR Pre-reading uses pictures to help scaffold to the sounds, and then drops them in level 1 and has students practice going directly from phonogram to sound.) 

[forty-two]

Dekodiphukan's sound pictures aren't really mnemonics - they are pictorial representations of the sound itself (grr'ing dog for/r/ and hissing snake for /s/) - but they've been so helpful in teaching reading and spelling here.  (I don't remember the arguments against mnemonics so I'm not sure if the pictures being of the *sound* itself instead of a mnemonic to remember the sound is significant or not - I sort of think maybe it is, but not sure.)

[MomatHWTK]

Your child, your school, teach it your way.  

[Tanaqui]

Your child, your school, teach it your way.  

 

This is perhaps not as helpful a comment as you think. She's not asking if child services will haul her away for doing it THIS way instead of THAT way, she's asking if it will hinder her child's reading. "Do whatever you like!" is not an answer to that question.

[ElizabethB]

With my remedial students who required an insane amount of repetition, I found the phonovisual charts helped and did not hinder, they made them learn them faster and did not cause oroblems, free to print, page 10 and 30:

 

http://archive.org/stream/phonovisualmetho00scho#page/n0/mode/2up

 

I had an apraxia student who also needed even more help than this for 2 letter vowel teams, I used my color coded vowel charts and he needed the color cues, then he was weaned down to the black and white version, bringing back the color version if he needed a hint. I made ou red just for him, he took 1,000+ repetitions to learn ou, the cue was ou red blood ouch, the last 4 pages of the pdf are the chart I am talking about.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/Resources/PL26VowelChart.pdf

Edited January 7, 2016 by ElizabethB

[ElizabethB]

Dekodiphukan's sound pictures aren't really mnemonics - they are pictorial representations of the sound itself (grr'ing dog for/r/ and hissing snake for /s/) - but they've been so helpful in teaching reading and spelling here. (I don't remember the arguments against mnemonics so I'm not sure if the pictures being of the *sound* itself instead of a mnemonic to remember the sound is significant or not - I sort of think maybe it is, but not sure.)

The old Open Court also taught the sounds that way, it is a good program. The new Open Court is not good. Here are some samples online, the actual books are hard to find, although I have collected a few over the years by keeping on the lookout for reasonably priced workbooks and books.

 

http://wigowsky.com/school/opencourt/opencourt.htm

[lacell]

Also, the whole "put sounds together to make words" thing turned out to be hugely difficult for my girls - oldest dd knew her letter sounds since she was two, but she didn't figure out that /c/ /a/ /t/ put together makes /cat/ - that they were the same thing - till she was past 6 (after much work on both our parts).  (That was what I was hoping she'd learn from LeapFrog, but it ended up taking a *lot* more than a video alone could offer.)

 

My son had trouble with phonemic awareness as well. It took him quite some time. My two daughters haven't had trouble.

[lacell]

Thank you Elizabeth B. for the resources!

[FO4UR]

Go with the pictures if they help. It will only last a short while.  It is a crutch, yes, but crutches are temporary (often necessary).

 

What works with 3 hour lessons daily on older kids will not work within a short school day for a 7yo. 

 

 

My kids have all learned their letter sounds with Leapfrog Letter Factory. It's amazing!  My youngest is in process.  I was making her sandpaper letters and she was very interested in knowing what I was doing. She began calling out the letter sounds as she saw the letters.  She knew most of them.  (She's barely 3yo.) I have never worked with her. That is all from Leapfrog Letter Factory and a smidgen of Starfall.com  If they can remember that a cow says "moo," Leapfrog can help them learn their letter sounds very quickly.

 

 

We use math manipulatives with young children.  Cuisenaire rods dominated the table space at my house for years. We only break them out occasionally now.  We use these crutches to help the kids get up and moving with letters & numbers. Once they gain some strength, they will throw those crutches off.  (I've never know any adults who have to draw a cat to remember the c sound. Your kids will find it fun and amusing for a short while. In a year, they won't need the drawing.)

 

 

 

I once had a music teacher who wouldn't let us use song samples to remember the intervals. The only ones who made it over that hump of knowing a M 6th when you hear it began by associating it with "My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean."  (We were all 18+ and still needed a crutch.) Yes, you have to keep working to the point where you don't need the crutch, but use the clever ones while you need them.

 

 

Learning sticks better when new things are associated with old things, especially old things with an emotional attachment. I wouldn't be surprised to see a child calling a real cat "/c/ /c/  come here /c/"...or asking if every.single.word! that begins with a c is the word cat.  Kids test boundaries and see how far they can associate new material. That is how they learned to climb the fridge and get into my chocolate :drool5: , and that is how they learn to read. Give them warm and happy associations with the letters and their sounds.

 

 

I don't get any sort of benefit for being free advertising for Happy Phonics.  That said, HP is a set of games that teaches phonics.  With 3 children 7 and under (I assume from your posts) HP would be the best $50 spent ever.  "Everyone does their lessons, and then we can play a game!"  (mwahahaha = Mommy win!)

[SparklyUnicorn]

We've watched the Leap Frog Letter Factory videos umpteen zillion times, and nothing they learned (if they learned anything) transferred at all to reading.  Didn't do any harm, either - it was just completely ineffective all the way around.  Kind of disappointing, because they get such rave reviews, but oh well.  Makes me glad I treated them as entertainment instead of letting them be part of school time, though. 

 

I used those videos too.  They were magical.  Funny because they are so simple and kinda cheesy, but they really worked well!

[mathmarm]

The Critical Thinking Company is giving away their Alphabet Song Game for free. Its  supposed to have a bunch of activities and such. I've never tried it because we don't use electronic media in the early years and because Jr is reading already, but for anyone looking to add fun or maybe some reinforcement to their early literacy, it might be worth a shot. Its normally, $7.

[lacell]

We own the Logic of English games.

[J-rap]

I don't know if this is relevant, but my husband is re-learning English this way.  (After a brain-injury.)  The brain can often more easily come up with the sound based on a picture (or in his case, sometimes a key word, but it represents the picture).

 

However, another school of thought in neurology is that this adds an extra step for the brain to do and slows down processing, so it should be avoided.  My own personal observation is that as this process speeds up, the middle step (going to the picture first) is eventually left out altogether, except for the most difficult sounds.  I haven't found a way to avoid that.  I think the results are still inconclusive.  Until they are, I'd probably just do whatever seems to work!