How to Teach Children to Sound Out Words

Teaching young children how to read can be a very exciting yet stressful time for parents. It is very important when teaching children how to sound out words to start small and to focus on word families. When teaching children how to sound out words it is also imperative to make the learning process fun and to make a game out of it.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Review with your child all of the letters of the alphabet to make sure that she can identify all letters. In addition, review all of the sounds that the letters make for your child to make the connection
2. Display a very small word such as cat for the child to look at. When teaching the child to sound out words it is a good idea to write the word large on a piece of paper.
3. Sound out the word for your child and show him how you are saying the word slowly. Change the front letter of the word cat to another consonant such as a b, f or r. Show your child how the word changes with a new front sound.
4. Pretend that you are chewing a piece of gum and letter by letter, pull out the piece of pretend gum slowly. For example, as you say the letter c in the word cat, pull the piece of pretend gum out of your mouth. Next, as you say the letter a in the word cat, continue to pull the piece of pretend gum out of your mouth. Lastly, as you say the letter t in the word cat, pull the piece out longer. This will teach your child to string the sounds together.
5. String some letter beads on a piece of string and show your child how the sounds blend together to make a word.