Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



Active Topics || Favorites || Member List || Search || About Us || Help || Register || Login
Language Arts Come Alive
 4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Subject Topic: initial sounds ? Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message << Prev Topic | Next Topic >>
lapazfarm
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star
Avatar

Joined: July 21 2005
Location: Alaska
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6082
Posted: Aug 15 2006 at 9:36am | IP Logged Quote lapazfarm
Ok, dd is nearly 5 and she has been learning her letters and their sounds. She is very good at it now after an initial period of frustration on both our parts. But we have hit another stumbling block.
She absolutely cannot get the concept of initial sounds in words.
She knows all the letter sounds, so if we are reading a word, for example "big," and I ask her what sound each letter makes she can do that.
But if I were to say a word out loud and ask her to identify the letter or sound it starts with. Forget it, She doesn't even understand what I'm asking. Even if I sound it out really slowly. I am not sure how to get her to "listen" for the initial sound. Until she gets this concept, phonics instruction is at a standstill. Any ideas?
(This is the first child I've had with this issue, so I'm a little baffled right now.)

__________________
Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
Back to Top View lapazfarm's Profile Search for other posts by lapazfarm Visit lapazfarm's Homepage
 
julia s.
Forum Pro
Forum Pro
Avatar

Joined: Feb 27 2005
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 394
Posted: Aug 15 2006 at 10:10am | IP Logged Quote julia s.
I'm not sure I can help exactly, but my five year old is in speach therapy and one of the ways they "mark" sounds is to break the word into syllables and use poker chips or some kind of visual reference for each sound. Now a word like -big- is one syllable, but you could break the word up into three sounds and have three poker chips on the table that you point too. The target sound is usually a different color chip that they have chosen. You could do this without the written words in front of you and then bring the written words in after she is comfortable with the game.
Also you could say three or five words -- some have the same initial sound and some don't and have her tell you which words have the same sound (and conversely which don't).
My oldest had this trouble too. He also has trouble with phonics style reading. Readers that are too contrived to get the sound of the word over the meaning just made reading difficult (Sonlight's I Can Read series probably set him back a year as we tried to slug through it). We did have luck with Clifford Phonics fun Reading program from Schoolastic. Also, books like Little Bear, Dr. Seus books, some Mudge books by Cynthia Rylant. It had to be a gentle balance of some phonics with lots of cues from context of the words and pictures in the book.
And finally if she's really having trouble back off for a couple of months and let her mature a little more. Play word games, read books and don't sweat it. My oldest is now 9 and is finally picking up momentum. One thing I would have done more with my oldest is read more nursery rhymnes. I think this would have helped him down the road a lot.
Hope this helps and hopefully someone who has done this a few times can offer some good advice too.


__________________
julia
married to love of her life
with ds12 ds8 ds3 and ds1
Back to Top View julia s.'s Profile Search for other posts by julia s.
 
Bridget
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star
Avatar

Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Michigan
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2198
Posted: Aug 15 2006 at 10:26am | IP Logged Quote Bridget
Use letter tiles, just giving her the ones for each sound in the word. Have her push them into place as you and she say each sound slowly together. Then she has a visual, audio and gross motor to help make the connection. Then you could ask her to point and say the sound as you call out first, middle, last.

Another idea would be to teach the letter signs (a whole other project, I know) and have her finger spell the words.

Using fine and gross motor really helps make connections in the brain.

You could also just back off. She'll probably be ready on her own soon.



__________________
God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
Back to Top View Bridget's Profile Search for other posts by Bridget Visit Bridget's Homepage
 

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login
If you are not already registered you must first register

  [Add this topic to My Favorites] Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Hosting and Support provided by theNetSmith.com