vowel discrimination

How are you going about getting it into memory? What techniques are you using? (Rather than bore you with a bunch of stuff that you already know—like I may have done in the post above this one—let’s see what’s happening now.

Basically, we review constantly. We play games that involve nonsense words (his sight word memory is very good). I guess I’m pretty inexperienced, and don’t quite understand what you are asking. Are there particular tricks to get the sound/symbol connection to stick other than review? Any thing you can offer I’m sure will be helpful.

I use the clue-word strategy. It’s been pretty successful for me. Each short vowel sound is represented by a little drawing of the clue-word item. That way the clue word is totally multi-sensory.

For example, the short /a/ drawing is an apple tree with little /a/s hanging in it. You may have to manipulate the little stem on the /a/ so it looks a little more authentic and apple-like, but don’t manipulate too much. Your student should be able to make the visual connection if they’re placed appropriately in the tree. Also you can do an upper case A in the form of a ladder under it, as if someone was picking apples.

Then when you work with your student and she’s stuck on the sound, you should say ‘What is the clue word for that sound? Answer: apple. You say “What is the first sound in the word ‘apple’

If you’re interested I’ll post the other 4 clue words and their corresponding pictures. But I don’t want to do it unless you’re really interested as it’s going to be fairly lengthy.

Basically, our brains receive information through sensory models—the most common of which are sight, hearing, touch, movement, and smell. Smell isn’t as useful (usually) in a school environment, but the others sure are. Some folks learn better using one mode over the others.

So, if you present a white card with a neatly typewritten (printed) “a” on it and you tell someone to say the sounds of this letter, they would respond with the sound of /a/ like in apple and the sound of /ae/ like in ate. (I’m not going into schwa—the sound that Atlanta ends with—right now.) Now, some might start remembering better with a key word. So, you might say “apple” and they would say, “oh, /a/.” This process just described uses both visual and auditory channels. It also uses a mnemonic device with the key words (that is good for jogging semantic memory channgels.)

Some folks who learn better from tactile/kinesthetic activities might need to trace (or trace over) a letter and say the sound as they are tracing it.

Others who are fine visualizers might need to imagine seeing the letter dancing with an apple and someone throwing the core who just ate the apple. This process joggs episodic memory and can be very powerful in people.

Now, we may have folks who remember the apple part but cannot remember the sound part. This may take a lot of practice for some kids using the ideas above.

Once something is learned incorrectly by brain, it is very, very difficult to unlearn. The hardest thing brain does is rewire a hardened neural connection. I suspect that your child is trying to unlearn something here. Has the wrong sound and is having a hard time getting the new one into memory.

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That was fast Susan.
For short /e/ I have a little drawing of an egg (lower case e with closed part yellow for yolk and maybe a faint dotted line to connect the open part to the yolk) If your student has difficulty hearing the short vowels followed by /g/ draw the egg teetering on the corner of a table (edge) and use the word edge instead. The same picture will do though. Dialogue: What is the clue word for that sound? A: egg (or edge) Q: What is the first sound in the word egg (edge)

For short /i/ Once again if there is a problem with the /g/ sound following the vowel, use the word itch. Draw a finger reaching to scratch the dot. I’ve seen it drawn on the side of a mouth as if that was the itchy part, bit you could use any part of the body.

If your student is OK with the /g/ following I like the word igloo because this is a little more multi-sensory. Draw the igloo with a little /i/ right in the doorway. This represents a little man. He is standing right at the front of his house, the igloo, which is where you have to say that sound in your mouth. If you try and say it any further back, you’ll be saying the
wrong sound. Q: What is the clue word for that sound? A: itch (or igloo) Q: What is the first sound in the word itch (or igloo)?

For short /o/, draw 8 legs around it, 4 on each side. That is an octopus. Q: What is the clue word for that sound? A: octopus. Q: What is the first sound the word octopus?

For short /u/ Draw little hands at the top of the branches of the /u/. Look where he’s putting his little hands. Up. Have student also put arms in the air to simulate the shape of the U. Q: What is the first sound in the word up?

So that’s the gist of it. I think it’s quite adaptable and you could probably think up some clue words that may suit your student better - something meaningful to him. But you should pick one word - and stick with it. Barbara Wilson uses the name Ed for short /e/. She has a little backward cap on the e. Ed is her husband’s name so that’s probably why she thought of it. Naturally if by chance your student’s name happens to start with any of the short vowels, you would use that one.

Thanks for the ideas! I have been giving key words with pictures for the sounds, but after reading your posts I’m thinking that I should be emphasizing them more. I think at her age these concepts are quite difficult to learn, but she’s a hard worker so I’m hopeful. I just wish I could make it easier for her.

For some kids that need the episodic over the semantic memory tap, this exercise looks wonderful. And fun. Thanks for sharing.

I like your suggestion. The “Project Read” hand signals are also very helpful for some students. We touch our adams apple as we make the /a/ and so on.

I tried using the vowel clue words and it really worked with my student that has visual perceptual/discrimination difficulty. Do you have something for the consonants as well? I know this is asking a lot, but I really appreciate your help, Eleanor. My 6 year old student is so intelligent with an IQ of 130, but he just can’t learn the letters. He can blend sounds etc.. has phonological awareness but can’t use it due to lack of letter sound correspondence.

http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/spellings.html

THis has several options for most letters that are animated and memorable ;)

What shall we play now?

I’ve only made them for a couple of the consonants. That is because usually by the time I get to see the kids they’ve usually gone through a few tutors/resource rooms/spec. ed classes and have picked up the consonant sounds - although they are usually far from automatic and often they schwa them so that has to be corrected.

The ones I have are /y/ - and for that I have an amazing picture of a mountain goat, who just happens to be officially called a ‘yak’. The angle of his horns and the shape of his face are exactly like the letter Y. I got the idea when I found the original picture in the Auto Club magazine some years ago. I’ve redrawn it numerous times - and it’s pretty successful, using the same dialogue as for the vowel sounds. ie. Q: What is the clue word for that sound? A: Yak Q: What is the first sound in the word ‘yak’?

The only other one I have is for the sound /h/. Draw the h on a card. Tell student: There was a little man/boy/girl who was running and running so hard that he/she was gasping for breath, saying huh, huh, huh, huh ….. (breathe hard). He said “I need to sit down. If only I had a chair” …. and suddenly, as he was gasping ‘huh’ the lower case /h/ appeared.

I’ve used a couple of different things for /w/ and really have yet to come up with something successful. The ones I’ve tried include a old style leaded ‘window’, with diamond shaped panes - and a picture of /w/ shaped pigs feet, where the pig was supposed to be saying ‘wee, wee, wee. Actually a student thought that one up himself.

Another one thought up by a student is little dots in the 2 v’s of the /w/ to suggest a woman’s body parts - and the word ‘woman’. Of course that’s inappropriate for obvious reasons - which is unfortunate as I think that one would stick. I’d like to hear what other people have come up with for /w/.

BTW, I had a look at the website someone mentioned on here - and I hope no one will be offended, but I think those are way too confusing. That is the same problem with a couple of the well-known phonics programs that are in vogue right now. It’s too much of a reach between the recommended picture - and the sound it’s supposed to represent. If you have an LD student, the last thing they need is that sort of complication. You need to make it as simple as possible until it’s totally automatic.

And on that note, I’ll get off my soapbox - and start my dinner.

Just one more thought — when a student has a real problem remembering something, sometimes it’s best to go back to the one-thing-at-a-time method. For a whole lesson, do ONLY the “short a” (apple) sound. Look at the a and apple picture on the card. Say aaaaa several times, you and she alternating, together, singing it, whatever. Think of all the words you can starting with the sound — apple, ant, and, axe, Adam, … Think of all the words you can with the sound in the middle: cat, rat, ran, man, … Say the sound over and over again and stress it again. Say aaaaa axe, aaaaa, Adam, etc. Have her write out lots of these words herself. Spend a whole hour on this one sound. The next class, see how well she remembers it. Spend five minutes on review.If she is sytill vague, repeat the first lesson, although in MOST cases the kid will catch on. Then once she has short a, put it aside and spend a whole hour on short o (not in order, because a and e are hard to discriminate.) The third day, do a whole day on discriminating short a and short o. And so on. True, it will take fifteen hours (or maybe even more) to teach the short vowels this way, and it isn’t fast or easy. And how far has she gotten by using “faster” methods before this? Invest the time and effort; this usually works.

A small caveat — yes, I use clue words all the time, and yes, they are very useful. However I have seen people mistake the pointing finger for the moon and go into long and complex and tedious teaching programs to teach things such as the clue words, while losing sight of the original goal which was to relate letters to sounds and then to teach reading. Yes, use these, but please don’t go off track.

I saw the h for out-of-breath and running for a chair “h-h-h” and some other clue words in a book called “Teaching ALL Children to Read” by Wallach and Wallach. You may find this a good resource.