Sounds vs. letters
The foundation of reading, according to experts, rests on phonemic awareness -- the ability to distinguish and manipulate sounds (phonemes) within words.
Thus reading preparation in pre-k to kindergarten should focus on sounds rather than letters. Help your young learners recognize and order the sounds they hear in words, regardless of how those sounds are spelled.
This might take some practice on your part, parents. The name of each vowel letter, as sung in the Alphabet Song, is a vowel sound: a, e, i, o, u. These are traditionally called long sounds. But each of these letters has another sound, traditionally called the “short” sound.
You could introduce them as grown up sounds/baby sounds, or names/sounds, or stick with long/short, but insist on the distinction.
Students will tend to say the name of the letter they are looking at. Guide their attention instead to the sound the letter makes in that word. For example:
“What’s the vowel sound in can?”
“A.”
“That’s the letter. Is it saying its name (or long sound) or its baby sound (short sound)?”
For the youngest learners, you can drop the labels – “is it saying /ae/ or /a/?”
Same goes for consonant letters. It’s not “t” (name) it’s /t/ (sound). It’s not “sh,” it’s /sh/ (Brackets indicate a sound).
It’s better for a young reader to mistake the name of a letter for its sound than vice versa. If your student says /a/ when asked the name of the letter “a,” yay! Don’t discourage that, you’re on the right track.
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