Are You Teaching Your Preschooler the “WRONG” Letter Sounds?
Sometimes parents have no idea if their child will be a struggling reader or not. It’s best to have some solid practices in teaching reading to avoid delays and confusion as much as possible.
Poor examples of letter sounds can be found in ABUNDANCE in children’s ABC books and on learning charts found in random stores like grocery stores or dollar stores near the beginning of the school year.
I remember this one board book my son used to have. It showed a SHARK for the letter S. However, I knew that children should really learn the individual sound the S makes before learning the digraph, SH. It can cause unnecessary confusion for young learners.
Let’s go through a few other examples of what NOT TO DO.
Adding “uh” to the end of a consonant.
Remember learning about vowels and consonants? The vowels are A, E, I, O, U. Any other letter is a consonant. Sometimes parents are unaware that they are adding an “UH” sound to the end of a consonant. When the child reaches the stage of putting 3 sounds together in a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word, it can become a real stumbling block for blending the sounds.
Some teachers call it “clipping the vowel.” Basically, you are shortening the sound you are making. Instead of saying “buh” for B or “duh” for D, you are simply making the consonant sound.
Most people who are doing this are unaware unless it is pointed out.
The soft C or soft G sound.
There is nothing wrong with the soft C or the soft G sound. In fact, if your child’s name includes one of these sounds, you may want to go ahead and teach it. I have found in my experience, however, that it is best to WAIT to teach these letters’ initial sounds until your child can read beginning reading CVC words.
For example, C is for CAT and G is for Gorilla. Already, the G can be confusing because of its name. As your child begins to read and starts to encounter more difficult words like “FACE” or “CAGE,” you can teach the soft sounds of these letters. For many words, if one of these letters is followed by an I, E, or Y, they will make their soft sound:
Cindy, cycle, cereal, gym, gentle, frigid
As you can see, most early reading books will not yet have words like those above in them and your child is find relying on the hard sound of the C and G.
Digraphs and Blends before individual letter sounds
I always taught my early readers digraphs like TH, CH, and SH early on. HOWEVER, it was must that they learn the individual letter sounds of the T, C, and H first. So, no “S is for SHARK” or C is for “CHAIR,” for example.
Another confusing one can be “TRUCK or “TRAIN” for the letter T. For many children, it will sound like “CHR” in the beginning. It is just easier if you use an example like “tub” or “two” instead.
Long vowels before short vowels.
The closed syllable type is the most common in our language, and the rule of closed syllables is that the vowels are short. Sure, there are exceptions (find, most, etc.). However, because they are so common, I always teach SHORT VOWEL SOUNDS FIRST.
Silent letters at the beginning of a word.
This one is a bit ridiculous, and NO ONE I KNOW would do this. I just use it as an example. BUT, you would not see anyone try to use the word “KNOW” for learning the sound of letter K, just like you would not use “GNAT” for learning the sound of letter G.
It is fine to teach children that letters make OTHER SOUNDS, but when your child is in the very beginning stages of learning the alphabet, it’s better to just learn the main sound of each letter. Here is a good visual of what I’m talking about:
One question you might have is, “Why use the ending sound of x?” Well, many times we see “x-ray” because that is the only example people can think of. More often, in our language, words don’t start with x. It is my opinion that in this instance it is fine to teach the ending sound of x. For all other letters, however, I teach beginning sounds.
If you are unsure about where to begin teaching your child to read, check out my course for parents, “A Busy Mom’s Guide to Teaching Your Child to Read.” I’ll share with you the steps you can take in a relaxed and fun way so that your child learns the basics of reading up through short vowel words.
Remember, YOU are your child’s most influential teacher.