I need help teaching my child how to read she can sound out the letters in the word cat but she can’t seem to blend it together to make it sound like a word.
Re: blending
Also be sure you aren’t teaching your child the incorrect sound of the consonants. Say / t / not / tuh /, for example.
Your daughter is 4 years old?
If your are the same poster from the “Reading with your child” BB section, then it is possible that your child may not be developmentally ready to blend yet. Why not be sure that rhyming skills are there…play some more word games with segmenting (as Barbara suggested) and give it a little more time.
Certainly, age 4 isn’t a time to to be concerned if a child isn’t actually learning to read. It *is* a time to be sure they can rhyme and alliterate. Huge language gains at this age…word knowledge and sentence construction. Talk lots. Go places and talk about what you are seeing. Explore. Build experiences.
Follow a child’s natural curiosity about print. Read lots of stories to him/her. Lots & lots. Teach a love of books.
If you are not the same poster and your child isn’t age 4…never mind!
Re: teaching a child to read
Take it slowly and get it right, a little at a time. Say the individual sounds, stretching them out as long as you can as in
mmmmmmmmm-aaaaaaaaaaaaa-nnnnnnnnnnn
Or, for stops, stutter many times
c-c-c-c-c-c-c-aaaaaaaaaaaa-t-t-t-t-t-t
Point to each letter as you do this. Have her point to each letter and imitate you. Make absolutely sure that you are always tracking left-to-right, no exceptions.
Then do it just a little bit faster, but still very drawn out, and have her copy that. Then a little faster, and so on. On about the fifth time you are saying the word VERY slowly.
Take it easy and make it a game. After a while she will catch on and do it herself. If she is very young, you can take years at this, so don’t rush it. If she is older, it’s still well worth a month or two or three to teach blending.
Re: teaching a child to read
Thanks Barbara I tried your idea using the slide and she was able to blend the sounds to make a word.
Re: teaching a child to read
Make sure you are pronouncng the letter sounds correctly yourself. As a prevous poster said..no extra uh sounds at the ends of the letters including letters like y. its not yuh-eh-luh-oh is ee-el-oh. Most people who have not studied the subject will make a mistake with at least a few. Ah, and then theres the trap of trying to sound out words with r like car using the /a/ sound as in cat. Always check out the word ahead of time to make sure it complies with what you’ve taught unless you have a good knowledge of phonics rules and avoid the “exceptions” until you are ready to explicitly teach them. I had a lot of fun teaching things like ch using sound effects like ch ch ch goes the train. oo oo goes the whistle. sh the train lets off steam.
Re: teaching a child to read
I have a (used) copy of Toe by Toe, an English phonic reading scheme that I used with my son. I have had great success in school with it too. Type www.toebytoe.co.uk and have a look at some sample pages. I can highly reccomend it. It costs about £22 sterling. If you want to look at the whole book, I will post it off to you if you send me your mailing address. I have already sent it to America once, and it was returned to me a few months ago. I would like it returned though, if you don’t mind, then I can lend it again.
How old is your child?
What I found out this year with my 5 and 6 y/o kiddos that helps is printing a large slide that they use for playing. Then I print out letters. I would say that these letters play. The letter “t” is waiting at the bottom of the slide for “a” to join him.. The “a” is at the top of the slide and she says “aaaaaaa” then when she bumps into “t” says “at”. I hope I’m making sense here! Blending sounds beginning with vowels is easier like “at, et, ot”, later on, put the 2 letters at the bottom of the slide and put a consonant on top so that it would say “mmmmmm…mat”. What’s important is that your child sees you manipulating the letters. Make it fun. Kids usually enjoy it. Sometimes I make the letter on top slide up, down, and then bump.
After the slides, you can just put the letters on a line and put them close together. Slide them as you blend the letters. Work on decreasing the distance.
You can also ask your child to slide her fingers underneath the printed letters.
Maybe your child needs phonological awareness first. Try onset and rime. “What’s this word mmm….at?” Once your child gets a sense that sounds (orally first, don’t use letters yet!) can be put together to make a word, blending actual letters becomes easier.
Hope this helps.