We received our Souns about a month ago and right away gave our son the o. He now has the o, m, s, t and p and is loving them. Just today we were driving around and he was pointing out sounds on signs - and s in the Safeway grocery store sign, an m in another sign... it is so amazing to see him learn and recognize the sounds.
We do have a question, and that is what the proper order of introduction is. We've been going by the order of the pronunciation list in the booklet, but have noticed that the order of the children pronouncing them on the video is different.
Thanks so much for such a great learning tool!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Four-year-old Asa Emails
asa: monstrs eet uthr monmstrs.
me: i am not a monster. today i am a butterfly.
asa: im a rabt.
me: i am a bird today. what are you?
asa: im a bee.
(Several days went by.)
asa: im a brd tooda.
me: i am not a monster. today i am a butterfly.
asa: im a rabt.
me: i am a bird today. what are you?
asa: im a bee.
(Several days went by.)
asa: im a brd tooda.
Keeping In Touch With J
I haven't had a chance to try some of your suggestions yet, but I have been using the Souns letters during play again lately. My daughter remembers the first 7 and I am going to introduce the next letter soon. I'll keep you posted on her progress.
I am interested to see if she will be an above average reader. She also shows more interest in books than my son, and she crawled for 6 months before she walked. They say there is a connection between kids who crawl for a long time and higher reading levels. Between her crawling, interest in books and Souns, I am guessing she will be a great reader!
J
I am interested to see if she will be an above average reader. She also shows more interest in books than my son, and she crawled for 6 months before she walked. They say there is a connection between kids who crawl for a long time and higher reading levels. Between her crawling, interest in books and Souns, I am guessing she will be a great reader!
J
A Response to J's Question
Thank you so much for writing in with your questions. We really appreciate any feedback from parents and your questions are familiar ones. We are so happy that you are doing this with your daughter and are so proactive.
There are a couple of things that we thought of with your current situation. First of all, you have a very common situation of having an older sibling learning letter names at school. We get that question quite frequently. While letter names are inescapable, it is really your emphasis on the sounds that will draw your daughter back to the importance of them. You can talk to your son about the importance of sounds in reading and that your daughter is too young to understand both right now. Ask him to talk about the sounds instead of the letters with her. Re-emphasizing the sounds when he or she states the letter name will reinforce it. For example, if either see a letter and say it's name, such as a "M", you can respond, "Yes, that's mmmm".
The other thing you mentioned was that she was having trouble producing the /e/ and /'i/ differently. While your daughter may be producing the rest of the Souns she has learned, it isn't necessary that she be able to articulate them correctly, no matter what her age or developmental level until she is beginning to decode outloud. For now, it is entirely about her comprehension and differentiation of the different letters and their sounds. If you place emphasis on her identifying (showing you the object that you named) rather than her naming it outloud, you should be able to redirect her to more success and therefore encourage her continued play with Souns.
It is normal that children's interests will wane over time but if you continue to keep Souns in her life and environment, without it being a testing situation, and emphasize natural play situations, you will be able to continue reinforcing Souns. With my own children, if I feel like the interest is waning, I will sometimes just make sure the Souns got spilled and ask them to clean them up by stating, "Go get the sss under the chair" and "Can you bring the aahh to Mommy?" Even if she isn't interested in Souns per se, she will always be interested in your attention. And, of course, sounds are everywhere. There are many opportunities to talk about the letter's sounds when you see them on trucks on the road or napkins at a restaurant. Also, depending on your daughter's level, you can play sound games in the car or wherever, asking, "what sounds do you hear in "pop" etc.. or "what else starts with ssss?"
There are a couple of things that we thought of with your current situation. First of all, you have a very common situation of having an older sibling learning letter names at school. We get that question quite frequently. While letter names are inescapable, it is really your emphasis on the sounds that will draw your daughter back to the importance of them. You can talk to your son about the importance of sounds in reading and that your daughter is too young to understand both right now. Ask him to talk about the sounds instead of the letters with her. Re-emphasizing the sounds when he or she states the letter name will reinforce it. For example, if either see a letter and say it's name, such as a "M", you can respond, "Yes, that's mmmm".
The other thing you mentioned was that she was having trouble producing the /e/ and /'i/ differently. While your daughter may be producing the rest of the Souns she has learned, it isn't necessary that she be able to articulate them correctly, no matter what her age or developmental level until she is beginning to decode outloud. For now, it is entirely about her comprehension and differentiation of the different letters and their sounds. If you place emphasis on her identifying (showing you the object that you named) rather than her naming it outloud, you should be able to redirect her to more success and therefore encourage her continued play with Souns.
It is normal that children's interests will wane over time but if you continue to keep Souns in her life and environment, without it being a testing situation, and emphasize natural play situations, you will be able to continue reinforcing Souns. With my own children, if I feel like the interest is waning, I will sometimes just make sure the Souns got spilled and ask them to clean them up by stating, "Go get the sss under the chair" and "Can you bring the aahh to Mommy?" Even if she isn't interested in Souns per se, she will always be interested in your attention. And, of course, sounds are everywhere. There are many opportunities to talk about the letter's sounds when you see them on trucks on the road or napkins at a restaurant. Also, depending on your daughter's level, you can play sound games in the car or wherever, asking, "what sounds do you hear in "pop" etc.. or "what else starts with ssss?"
A Great Question
I purchased souns for my infant daughter when she was a few months old. She began making the sounds of the first letter almost immediately after introducing it (somewhere between 6 mos and 1 yr). I introduced a few more, and she said those as well. It was so amazing.
She had about 5 letter sounds down before the age of two. Funny thing is, she was speech delayed. Didn't say Mommy until about two years old (Said Daddy a little earlier).
I have an older son in kindergarten, so my daughter is exposed to a lot of books and videos with letters. Due to this, she will sometimes say the name of the letter instead of the sound. It has also become increasingly difficult to teach her the new sounds. The e is hard for her to say...it sound like the i. The i sounds like the e. Should I skip these and continue with other letters?
Now that she is mobile (didn't walk until almost 19 mos) and talking and able to play with a lot more stuff, she isn't really interested in her souns letters as much. I have to catch her in the right mood. Do you have any tips to keep this going?
J
She had about 5 letter sounds down before the age of two. Funny thing is, she was speech delayed. Didn't say Mommy until about two years old (Said Daddy a little earlier).
I have an older son in kindergarten, so my daughter is exposed to a lot of books and videos with letters. Due to this, she will sometimes say the name of the letter instead of the sound. It has also become increasingly difficult to teach her the new sounds. The e is hard for her to say...it sound like the i. The i sounds like the e. Should I skip these and continue with other letters?
Now that she is mobile (didn't walk until almost 19 mos) and talking and able to play with a lot more stuff, she isn't really interested in her souns letters as much. I have to catch her in the right mood. Do you have any tips to keep this going?
J
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