Let's talk some more about phonemic awareness, okay? Today I'd like to focus on phoneme isolation -- the ability to single out just the beginning, middle or ending phonemes or sounds in a word. If your child is making good progress with rhyming and counting syllables, it's probably time to move on to phoneme isolation. Start by working with beginning sounds. Then move on to working with ending sounds, and lastly focus on those tricky middle sounds. The activities below are explained with beginning sounds -- just substitute different words and sounds in order to focus on middle and ending sounds. Mix it up and try these activities with lots of different sounds, focusing first on consonants and short vowels.
1. Say a word. Ask your child to tell you the beginning sound of your word. "What's the beginning sound of ball?"
2. Play "I Spy" with pictures in books or objects around your house. Say "I spy with my little eye something that starts with /s/." Ask your child to guess the object that starts with /s/.
3. Play "Which word doesn't match?" Say three words, two of which have the same beginning sound. For example: sun, sock, map. Ask your child which word begins with a different sound?
4. Make a sound collage. Have your child cut out pictures of objects that begin with a certain phoneme. Glue the pictures onto paper to make a collage. Draw some additional pictures on your collage for a mixed-media effect.
Okay? Go have some fun with word play!
