Discovering Sounds

       After the beginner has progressed to where he is acquiring a list of recognizable words and is adding other words with ease, he is ready to be helped to the key of word recognition, namely, phonics, or recognition by sound. Unlike her predecessors, a modern teacher starts help in phonics with words which are interesting to children and which lend themselves to phonic analysis. In one first grade there were four T names: Thomas, Terry, Teddy, and Tim. Wouldn't it have been absurd for the teacher to have overlooked this situation, and taught her children, by way of introduction to phonics, the consonant B when there wasn't a name beginning with B in the group? Instead, this teacher put all four T names on the board, and asked the children to take a look and see if they noticed something interesting. Her class noticed the four T's, and had fun loudly exploding the T sound. They also added other words they knew which began with T. In teaching phonics, the trick of associating the appropriate sound with the symbol is what should be stressed. 
       Many playful experiences of children help develop a keener ear for sound, and a greater interest in the relationship of sound to language-making rhymes and jingles, for example. These may be written for children to see. This will help some ready youngsters observe word endings which rhyme. 
       During these initial stages children make discoveries which should be given more recognition than a busy teacher or parent often finds time for. A serious reader comes up to the teacher, book in hand, and with eyes wide with surprise, says, "Look, here are two words almost alike-some and same." Or, "This word begins with the same letter my name does, W." Such discoveries are important moments in life. They should not be chilled with, "Why, of course, didn't you know that?" or "I'm busy now; don't interrupt me." The more a child discovers and mulls over in the process of learning to read, the greater his satisfaction and the surer his accomplishment will be. This, of course, means that the adult must take time for short periods of individual help to look at a word here, listen to a response there, and still be able to go ahead with the work at hand, accepting the interruption with as little to-do as possible. This is artistic teaching and guidance. 

       Leapfrog has it's own channel at Youtube. This company has been around for a very long time and they know "how" to make learning to read fun! But so does Sesame Street and Scholastic Kids.

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