Need Help Teaching Letter/Sound Recognition

If you don’t mind tell me about your use of LiPS. Where did your student have difficulty? consonants? vowels? making the correct sound? Are you able to work with him one-to-one?

I’ve never seen a child fail Zoo Phonics. You can do a Yahoo search and find their website, I believe.

Two things

(1) Yes, quick would be nice. But correct and retained are a heck of a lot more important. I keep reminding my students (K to university) that there is no value in a fast mistake. Take the time it takes and get it right and make sure he really knows the stuff. Then he can realy catch up. Hurrying is very likely what got him where he is now.

(2) No guarantees, but I find that letter forms are *much* better retained if you get kinesthetics into it — in other words, write as well as look. Use a good letter formation guide and insist on correct directionality — this both leads to effective printing and cursive later, and gets a pattern learned in the brain. For excample, b and d are formed completely differently and will not be confused if they are learned by writing-and-reading.
Yes, it does take time to have the child write a line of ten d’s correctly (circle counterclockwise first, then up and down). But aftger that, the student tends to retain it and then doesn’t have to be re-taught a hundred times. In the short run longer, in the long run an awful lot faster.
Have the student say the sound (d-d-d-d-) *while* he forms the letter; tying vision, kineshtetics, and sound closely together often helps retention.

Also get the student involved in activities — get a good phonics workbook (or two or three, for even more needed repetition) and do a variety of activities and games— identifying things that start with d, writing d’s, distinguishing between d - f- m beginning words, spelling d words, and many others. Nothing against PG or LMB, but from what I’ve seen, they tend to teach one way. Students who need more can benefit from working through good workbooks (*with* teaching support, not busywork) for more backup.

My son had a terrible time learning to identify letters. He learned to read pretty well with phonographix which basicly skips learning letter names and emphasizes letters as sound pictures.

This worked for him when nothing else did. It turns out that he has a severe visual motor deficit.

I agree with Victoriah. Using kinesthetic/tactile experiences often helps. I’m linking you to a webpage that has directions for forming letters and helps eliminate confusion between those that are similar: http://user.mc.net/~gsh/TeachingTheChildToPrint.htm.

If you have the child say the represented sound along with the letter name as s/he prints, this also helps lock them in the mind. For example, first have the child repeat the directions for formation such as “Start at 2 o’clock, go up and around to 2, and drop.” This forms the letter ‘a’. When them movement is learned, have the child say, while printing, A, /a/, A, /a/. It may take many repititions but I’ve sound that children do learn both letter names and the sounds they represent. Grace

I’m sorry. The link didn’t work. Try this one.

http://user.mc.net/~gsh/TeachingTheChildToPrint.htm

Thanks for the input. With LiPS, we did it over the course of a year, but I did not have the luxury of working one-on-one. I did use small groups but I was not satisfied with the program as a whole for a school setting. I can see the benefits of using it with many students in a clinical setting though and do believe it has true benefits.

In regards to “quick” what I meant was that I needed some suggestions as soon as possible. I have NO problem taking time on something that will work for him.

As of the last posting, my student is able to identify his capital letters (no sound correlation) with 98% accuracy. That’s a big step for us!

I agree with Virginia on the tactile kinesthetic feedback. But you know which program has a great tactile kinesthetic program for writing letters?
That’s Handwriting without Tears. The teacher’s manual for printing (around $7) show the “wet dry try” method for reinforcing/teaching printing. But I think it would be useful for teaching names/sounds of letters. Basically you have a little 4 X 6 chalkboard. (she sells these as well). Webpage: http://www.hwtears.com

You write the letter very large filling the whole space. You have the kid wet it with a little piece of sponge. Then the kid dries it about 4 times with a small piece of paper towel. Then they write it with a piece of chalk. I practiced this myself and it is really a neat kinesthetic thing. You wouldn’t really need the book or the way she makes the letters (if you could follow that). If you are attempting to teach sounds, you would have them say the sound of the letter at the same time (of course the vowels and several consonants make multiple sounds oh well). I think this would be tolerated better with younger kids.

Another would be to take a page out of Orton Gillingham and get some really fine sand. And a small tray and have the kid trace the letter in sand while saying the sound.

I really like the wet dry try better. Some kids do not like the feel of the sand, and this aspect is eliminated.

—des

I have tried many tactile and kinesthetic. Animated alphabet is large, kinesthetic movements that works on sound letter correlation. This has not worked for him.
Last year we worked with sand and that may have worked, he had a different teacher.
I have handwriting without tears and didn’t think to use that. I may try that and see if that helps. My student actually seems to be making prpgress and maybe it is from every method we have tried finally sinking in.

Thanks for all of your input
Andrea

he is assimilating TWO languages!! Spanish and English at the same time. Try and see if he knows the sounds of the letters with their symbol in spanish. I bet this is a big part of the problem. It takes a child 7 years to get competency in a second language and he is doing the best he can.

does he know his letters and sounds in Spanish? Can he say the alphabet, recognize letters in Spanish? I’d be interested to know what happens if he’s working in ‘Spanish mode’?

Patti
He has a specific learning disability in phonemic awareness. He has it, unfortunetly, in ANY language he is learning.

He has finally begun to learn his letters and sounds, but I would still love to hear suggestions in case we have another student that is this severe.

andrea

I have successfully used Reading Revolution with all oof my Special Ed students and it works. It is multi sensory, uses multiple intelligences and is comprehensive. Look them up at readingrevolution.com.
Ilene

Just a thought to use montessori method.My son had severely delayed language skills. He recieved intensive speech therapy from age 3 to almost 6yo. He is now 7yo and and is in first grade at a montessori school.
His reading is coming along great. They learn sounds of letters way before learning names of letters. You trace sandpaper letter while you say it’s sound,usually 3 letters at a time until the child knows them all and they can hand you the letter associated with that sound. Also you place pictures or objects that have that sound under or next to the sound.
After learning his sounds my son used to trace the letter in the air or on the table to cue himself to the letter sound. He doesn’t do that anymore but it was a very effective way for him to learn.