Do you know what I love? When I witness little ones overcome something that was once tricky.
We all have challenges and things that don’t come easily for us. But that moment when we can once do what we hadn’t been able to do before—that is a magic moment.
I just so happened to catch on video one of my little guy’s magic moments, and I am sharing it here with you today!
The Importance of Phonological Awareness
There are 7 Areas of Phonological Awareness, all of which are covered through play in How Wee Read:
- Rhyming
- Word Awareness
- Syllable Awareness
- Sound Identification
- Sound Segmenting
- Sound Blending
- Deleting Sounds (you are here)
Last week, I shared a bit about the skill of Sound Segmenting with you – s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g it out to learn to read. We practiced that skill with a button-flicking game. Or maybe a lot of button flicking… Turns out flicking buttons is super fun when you’re a kid!
And apparently, so is flicking your brother.
This skill will not result in any brother flicking at all, but it might involve a song that gets stuck in your head day and night.
Goodness, I am not promoting these activities in a very positive light! Flicking brothers, songs that get stuck in your head… it’s all worth it, I promise you.
Today, I want to share about another one of the phonological awareness skills. This skill was super tricky for my little guy to master, but he has it down now!
What is “Deleting Sounds”?
Deleting sounds requires taking a word and taking away one sound from it.
For example, saying the word “Dog” and then saying the word again but removing the first sound, “og.”
When deleting sounds, you can practice deleting the first sound, the last sound, and the middle sound.
The first sound is the easiest for little ones to understand, so it is a great one to start with. We like to use this little song for practicing this skill: (and please note the cute look of success on my little one’s face! Thanks, Mamas!)
Another fun way to practice this skill is by setting out 3 cups, balls, rolled up socks, blocks—you name it. Then say a word nice and slow while pointing at one item for each sound that you make: d-o-g. Next, take one item away. If you take the first item away, your child would respond by saying only the second and third sounds, “og!”
Of course there are many other way to practice this skill too. Have some fun and get creative!
For absolutely everything you need to teach your child to read—from rhyming to reading—take a peek at How Wee Read right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/how-wee-read
Thank you so much for reading, friends!
xo
Sarah
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