Phonemic awareness, the understanding that words are made up of connected sounds called ‘phonemes’, is a crucial foundation for reading development.
The English language has 44 phonemes. When you put various phonemes together, they become words.
When we hear people speaking other languages, it can be a real challenge to distinguish one word from the next, as it often sounds like all the words are connected. This difficulty in picking out one phoneme from another within the words is something many children face when learning to read.
When children are born, their auditory neural systems are not fully developed. As they grow, they begin to ‘talk’ by cooing in a sing-song manner. To them, that is how speech sounds. It's a gradual process, and by the age of 5-6, children are usually hearing the individual sounds in words.
For about 30% of the population, the ability to blend and segment phonemes in words does not develop well.
Sounding out words to decode unknown words is much easier when a child can connect the letter sounds they sound out. [blending sounds] Applying phonic rules to read and spell words correctly is also much easier when the child can distinguish specific vowel tones within words and syllables. Spelling improves tremendously when a child can segment the sounds in words, match those sounds to letters or letter patterns, and apply phonic rules for adding endings and using unusual letter patterns.
A child who struggles to efficiently process phonemes in words is at a significant disadvantage in the classroom, underscoring the importance of early intervention.
Reading Sound Strategies auditory training is designed to address this disadvantage. The lessons incorporate practice for sound blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds within words. They begin with simple 3- to 4-sound sequences and build to 3- to 5-syllable words. The child learns phonic rule letter patterns along the way. Repeated reading practice builds reading rate and accuracy. Spelling and writing when applying segmentation with phonics and letter-to-sound mapping support spelling and writing skill development. This method has been proven effective in improving reading fluency and phonics skills.
The video on the right demonstrates how we do auditory training practice with the Reading Sound Strategies method.
copyright 2025, Vickie Dinsmore, SLP, M.Ed.
Add comment
Comments