Many parents are excited to teach their children to read. When deciding what to teach first, I imagine that many parents start with what they know— sounding it out.
/C/ /a/ t/. Caaaat. CAT.
Sounding out words is a developmental skill. We can introduce it gently, reintroduce it later, and provide opportunities for practice when it’s finally “clicked.”
But did you know that kids need to know quite a few things about reading before we should teach them to sound out words?
1. Concepts of Print
If yours is a reading house, you may find that your children develop concepts of print without a lot of instruction from you.
- They hold books correctly and turn pages in the right direction.
- They know that each word on a page represents a spoken word.
- They understand that text is read from left to right.
How to develop concepts of print
- Read to your child often.
- Introduce books by their title. Sometimes, draw attention to the author and illustrator.
- Make sure some of the books you read have large bold print, and point to the words as you read.
- Point out signs in your environment (the Cheerios box, an EXIT sign, and the sign at your grocery store). Help your child see that print is all around you.
- Learn concepts of print with nursery rhymes. I created my nursery rhymes concepts of print pack so that my son could learn important pre-reading skills with ten fun rhymes.
2. Language and Listening Skills
As you read to your children, they’ll develop language and listening skills which they need before they can become readers.
- They can retell a familiar story in their own words.
- They engage with a story as you read to them — asking questions (“Why did he say that?”) and making personal connections (“I wish I could have that much ice cream!”)
- They can answer simple questions about a story.
How to build language and listening skills
- Ask open-ended questions as you read. Ask more “why” and “how” questions than “who” and “what.” (For sample questions, download this free printable.)
- Explain unfamiliar words as you read.
- Encourage your children to play pretend.
3. Letter knowledge
Obviously, kids need to know their alphabet before they’re ready to sound out words.
- They recognize both upper and lower case letters. Obviously if you teach your child to sound out words with capital letters, he doesn’t need to know the lowercase alphabet. But since most books are written with both upper and lower case letters, it’s helpful if your child can recognize lowercase letters as well.
- They can name each letter’s sound.
One note on this point: If a child does not know every single letter and sound, he or she can still learn to read. Some letters, such as q and z, for example, do not appear frequently enough to be a huge hindrance to learn to read.
How to teach the alphabet
- At our house we start with our kids’ names. (see my Name Activities Pinterest board for some great ideas.)
- We learn the rest of the alphabet by reading alphabet books and by playing a variety of games.
- We also like to explore the alphabet letter by letter in many hands-on ways. Check out my new ebook full of hands-on alphabet activities!
4. Phonological and phonemic awareness
While we’re learning the alphabet, we play games and do activities to lay a solid foundation of phonological and phonemic awareness. Sounds like teacher talk, right? Just remember that these are different from phonics because they are about LISTENING, not LOOKING. The following statements are true of children with phonological and phonemic awareness.
- They can count words.
- They can count syllables in words.
- They can rhyme.
- They can put sounds together to make a word. If you say these sounds to your child, /f/ and /ish/, can he put them together to make fish? If you stretch a word and say it like this — mooooon – does your child know the word is moon?
- They can identify the first and last sound in a word. This is not the same thing as knowing the letter. For example, if you ask your child the first sound in the word phone, she should be able to answer /f/.
How to promote phonological and phonemic awareness:
- Give your child a cup with counters. Say a sentence in the normal way and then recite it very slowly. (“The sky is blue.”) Can your child give you a counter for each word of the sentence?
- Teach your child to count syllables by starting with his own name. Then move on to other familiar words.
- Read rhyming books. (Check out my rhyming book lists for babies here. Also visit my list of rhyming books for toddlers and preschoolers.)
- Play rhyming games. (I’ve got a great collection of these in this post.)
5. An interest in learning to read
If you’re attempting to teach your child to sound out words and one or both of you are consistently frustrated, it will not end well. It may be that your child simply isn’t ready for this skill (see the above points), or it may be that it’s not on her list of priorities. If children are motivated to learn to read, you can expect the following to be true:
- They enjoy being read to.
- They frequently ask you to read aloud.
- They pretend to read.
How to help children get excited to learn to read
- Let your child see the value of knowing how to read by reading in a variety of ways in her presence. This might mean reading a recipe, your favorite magazine, devotional material, or even your e-mail.
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- Let your child choose books he loves when you read to him — but don’t feel tied to books you’re bored with. Pull out some winners from my book lists so that you’ll both enjoy yourselves!
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- We use and recommend the LeVar Burton Kids Skybrary app. You can use it on mobile, tablet, and desktop. The interactive books and quality read alouds are a great way to get kids excited about books!
Want to learn more?
Have you seen what people are saying about my letter of the week ebook? It’s a preschool curriculum both you and your child will love! Get it here.
© 2014 – 2018, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Ruth says
March 9, 2014 at 2:08 pmLOVE this!! For so many parents, “sound it out” is the only thing they know to how do and they don’t realize there are things to do beforehand. Great idea for a post!!
Anna Geiger says
March 9, 2014 at 2:09 pmThank you, Ruth! By the way, your guest post got a LOT of shares on Facebook! Definitely a topic people are interested in!
Ruth says
March 9, 2014 at 2:20 pmYay!! Thanks so much for the opportunity, Anna!
Marie says
March 23, 2019 at 8:56 amCan you share your post again? I’d love to read it too! Thanks!
cmbippert@gmail.com
Anna G says
March 28, 2019 at 6:29 amI’m sorry – it’s been so many years, I don’t remember what we were referring to. 🙂
Theres Just One Mommy says
March 10, 2014 at 8:41 amWonderful reminders! Sometimes as parents we forget that there is so much more than just sounding out the words… I always love listening to the stories my little ones “read” out of books when they are pretending to read.
Anna Geiger says
March 19, 2014 at 10:49 amYes, those moments of pretending to read are so precious! Thanks so much for commenting.
School Time Snippets says
March 10, 2014 at 9:17 amGreat reminder that being able/ready to read requires many baby steps along the way!! And a new one to me was being able to count out actual words! Hadn’t heard of that– makes sense though! I always focused on sounds & syllables… Thanks!
Anna Geiger says
March 19, 2014 at 10:49 amYou’re welcome, Kristina – thanks so much for reading!
Katie @ Gift of Curiosity says
March 10, 2014 at 10:46 amWhat a great list of skills that are precursors to learning to sound out words. This is a great reminder for parents that kids need to be developing lots of intermediate skills along the way as they learn to read.
My kids are just starting to “read” some of the books from the first BOB set. My son can sound out some of the words but my daughter is essentially reading using memorization and contextual clues (i.e., the pictures are reminding her what the words are saying).
Upon seeing this, my husband said, “but she’s not really reading!” and I had to remind him that reading is NOT just sounding out words (although that is important). As mature readers we use contextual clues to help us figure out words all the time, just as our daughter was doing. Over time she’ll also add phonics to her reading toolkit as she makes her way toward being a mature reader.
Anna Geiger says
March 19, 2014 at 10:50 amI like your final sentence … as a teacher I had some parents who couldn’t see any use for books that had words like “hippopotamus” for a beginning reader. They didn’t understand that kids can use context and picture cues too — otherwise there’s not a whole lot out there to read… at least not much that’s interesting!
Mary Catherine says
March 10, 2014 at 12:15 pmSuch good advice and resources! I think sometimes it’s forgotten that “sound it out” is only one part of being a great reader. Thanks so much for including my rhyming activities, as well. 🙂 I’m going to share this resource with some of my preschool parents.
Anna Geiger says
March 19, 2014 at 10:51 amThanks so much for sharing, Mary Catherine!
Bonnie a.k.a. LadyBlogger says
March 11, 2014 at 8:33 pmThank you so much for writing this VERY educational blog post! I have pinned it to my “children” AND my “parenting” boards on Pinterest so that parents can understand how hard it actually is to learn to read.
Anna Geiger says
March 19, 2014 at 10:51 amYou’re very welcome, Bonnie — thank you for pinning!
Molly says
March 12, 2014 at 9:57 amMy son is 7, and I wouldn’t say he’s a struggling reader. He’s definitely going at his own pace. I learned how to read when I was 4 or 5, on my own. I memorized some books, and I can still clearly remember the letters forming words and it just clicking for me.
I’m not expecting my kids to learn like me at all. I’m just flabbergasted on how I should go about teaching him.
In kindergarten, he knew about 14 letters at the beginning. At the end he knew all the capital letters. The first have of 1st grade, I gave him more time and worked on lowercase letters and their sounds. In January, we started reading Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He’s catching on, and we also do a lot of other phonics worksheets.
I love reading your blog because he does learn so much differently than me. I like that you show how kids learn, because I am lost in teaching my son to read otherwise.
Anna Geiger says
March 19, 2014 at 10:52 amThanks for following along, Molly! Feel free to write with specific questions. You can use the can use the contact form in the menu bar if necessary!
Holli says
March 22, 2014 at 7:49 amWhat a great resource. Thank you so much for this. Pinning this and off to check out your rhyming resources, too.
Anna Geiger says
March 24, 2014 at 8:40 amThanks for visiting and for checking out some other posts, Holli! I hope they’re useful for you.
Love and Lollipops says
March 22, 2014 at 12:31 pmA very helpful article thank you. I am busy with alphabet activities with my 5 year old at the moment and this is just what I needed to read. Georgia 🙂
Anna Geiger says
March 24, 2014 at 8:41 amSo glad to hear this was helpful for you, Georgia!
stephanie says
March 23, 2014 at 9:27 pmGreat collection of information! Thanks for sharing at After School!
MARY W says
March 26, 2014 at 12:06 pmAn excellent list. HOWEVER, don’t you think it needs to begin with the concrete experience of cat, making sure a youngster knows what a cat is so that when the word is finally read it will have real meaning.
Thank yo for this thoughtfully delineated piece. As an early childhood special educator and professional development provider, I intend to cite your considerate, well written piece — giving you credit and kudos.
Um Sami says
March 26, 2014 at 3:29 pmI noticed you are an early childhood special educator, so i am copying my general comment post to yours….and i hope you are checking for replies!
Any hints for helping a child learn to read who is developmentally advanced, yet severely speech delayed due to speech apraxia? He loves books, and we read daily…but when he speaks, he is functionally unintelligible. He is 3.5 years, cognitively about a year ahead (due to his multiple medical issue, he has had extensive evaluations, so this isn’t just a mom saying so lol!) but cannot physically form words properly to speak properly. He has been doing speech therapy, but we are living outside the US and developmental services aren’t as readily available. As mom, i can generally get the idea of what he is trying to say, but few others can. So how do i help him learn letter sounds and pre reading skills if he cant repeat them?
RW says
March 27, 2014 at 9:08 pmIf you are doing therapy for speech apraxia you will be using pictures to represent the sounds your son is learning. You can use these pictures for learning to read too, instead of saying the sounds just point to the pictures of the sounds. Your son’s heightened awareness of how to form the sounds and blend them together for speech will actually help him with learning to read if tasks are adapted appropriately for him.
Your speech therapist should be able to help with this, just tell her you would like to start with some pre-reading skills. If you’re still looking for help try rwspeech.com.au
Anna Geiger says
March 28, 2014 at 1:38 pmCertainly, Mary. If children are being read to and given lots of real world experiences, then the concrete experiences should be in place!
Martha Lucia Uribe Pico says
March 26, 2014 at 1:13 pmTHANKS SO MUCH FOR SUCH WONDERFUL IDEAS.
Um Sami says
March 26, 2014 at 3:27 pmAny hints for helping a child learn to read who is developmentally advanced, yet severely speech delayed due to speech apraxia? He loves books, and we read daily…but when he speaks, he is functionally unintelligible. He is 3.5 years, cognitively about a year ahead (due to his multiple medical issue, he has had extensive evaluations, so this isn’t just a mom saying so lol!) but cannot physically form words properly to speak properly. He has been doing speech therapy, but we are living outside the US and developmental services aren’t as readily available. As mom, i can generally get the idea of what he is trying to say, but few others can. So how do i help him learn letter sounds and pre reading skills if he cant repeat them?
Anna Geiger says
March 28, 2014 at 1:33 pmHello! Thanks for your question. I’m afraid I know very little about speech issues, but I can direct you to three great blogs by speech therapists. If you send a question to them via their contact forms or write a question on their Facebook page, one of them should be able to answer your question! Tell them The Measured Mom sent you. Hope you find what you’re looking for! Here are their blogs: http://www.two-daloo.com/, http://www.playingwithwords365.com/, and http://thelittlestories.com/.
Gmca says
November 4, 2014 at 1:56 pmI would try the glen doman method. He taught brain injured and other delayed children to read using large cards with printed words on them introduced one at a time and making games out of identifying and fetching them and eventually joining them into stories and adding punctuation. No need to speak at all. The method works for very young normal children and struggling older ones too. The other thing is to keep a running commentary going all the time about sounding out letters. Oh look, there is a m – point to the m on the box or in the book – like m for mother and m for mug and m for moo etc etc.
Anna Geiger says
November 7, 2014 at 6:29 amThanks for the recommendation!
Shalane Clayton says
December 22, 2015 at 5:08 pmHi, I know your post is over a year old and you may have found your solution, but just in case you are still hunting, there are some great apps out for the iPad to speak what is typed which could help your son ‘make’ the sounds associated with the letters he types in or reads from the story. In this way he would build on the concepts of letters/blend and sound associations.
Julie says
January 6, 2016 at 12:41 pmAlso, there are apps that produce the sound that you match up with the letters.
Mars M. says
March 26, 2014 at 7:19 pmThank you for this post. I will share it with my readers whom I know are going to teach their children to read this spring/summer. 🙂
Mars M.
http://www.montessoriinmars.blogspot.com
Anna Geiger says
March 28, 2014 at 1:40 pmThanks so much for sharing!
Linda says
March 27, 2014 at 12:04 pmSome kids who can’t seem to get letter names straight, do well, if not better, with leaning letter sounds. I worked with an older middle school could who loved wrestling on tv. I got him to learn some sounds because he recognized by sight his favorite wrestler names.
Anna Geiger says
March 28, 2014 at 1:36 pmThanks for the tip, Linda. I’ll give that suggestion to moms whose kids are having trouble with letter names.
Quincy says
May 7, 2014 at 9:57 amI think overall these tips are helpful. However, I disagree with stressing knowledge of the entire alphabet before beginning to read. In fact, I’ve never heard of this approach. I feel that learning letters sounds, acquiring phonological and phonemic awareness and sounding out simple words simultaneously works well and helps children stay motivated. I also prefer to teach letter sounds first, and letter names not at all. Children seem to acquire letter names without having to teach them. Focusing on letter sounds eliminates unnecessary information that can often make the sounding process more confusing.
Anna Geiger says
May 11, 2014 at 9:39 pmHi Quincy,
I don’t think children need to know all the letters and sounds before learning to read, but I don’t think they can sound out words without it. Some children can master sight words without a complete knowledge of the alphabet, but how can a child sound out a word without knowing the individual letter sounds?
You mentioned that you prefer to teach letter sounds before letter names. In my experience it has not confused children, but I can understand the reasoning behind doing it that way.
I do question your comment about having children acquire phonological and phonemic awareness at the same time as sounding out words. It goes against everything I’ve read, learned, and experienced. I’m curious if you’ve found some research to back up that approach.
Adele Pugh says
June 19, 2014 at 6:04 amTotally agree Quincy! Teaching the alphabet is irrelevant. Teaching the sound each letter makes is the key. You can’t possibly decode an unknown word by saying letter names but by sounds, yes. Obviously not always the case due to the irregularities in the English language but saying letter names will get you nowhere!
Anna Geiger says
June 19, 2014 at 6:12 amTrue, knowing letter names WITHOUT knowing sounds means children are not ready to learn to read (and in my post I do state that children need to know letter sounds). It’s also true that just because a child can recite the alphabet does not mean he understands it. But in my experience knowing both letter names and sounds has not been a problem. While I realize some children may get confused at having to know both, I have never observed this to be the case. I think that children can do more than we sometimes give them credit for.
Beth says
July 4, 2014 at 4:39 pmIn the uk teachers generally teach the children to sound out alongside teaching letter sounds. So they teach the letter sounds and letters s a t p i and n first and teach children to create words and read words that contain these letters. Then they add to these as they go along the first few months of school – alongside teaching sight words like said etc. The theory is that children feel like successful readers from the get go and are practising applying the skills rather than learning the sounds in isolation.
Anna Geiger says
July 6, 2014 at 10:46 amVery interesting, Beth – that sounds like a good approach if children are developmentally ready for it. Since many kids know their sounds long before they are ready to actually put them together to make words, I wanted to address that in this post.
Beth says
July 6, 2014 at 11:49 amOh yes, there are definitely children who already know a lot of their letter sounds before they get to the school stage anyway but for the ones who don’t this approach seems to be successful 🙂
Veronica says
November 15, 2014 at 9:20 amI know this is an older post but…I would dare say most kids know ALL their sounds before starting kinder because they use them daily. The goal is to associate the sounds with a letter. In this vein learning the alphabet NAMES is a waste of time. They do go on to learn the names as necessary on their own. I see so many worksheets, downloads, alphabet of the week games just to acquire the names of the alphabet and it is simply not necessary to read. It doesn’t matter that little Mary knows here alphabet names (and by that I mean can actually identify them by pointing to the letter) it gets her no closer to reading. I would recommend the booklet (and I do mean booklet–very short) A Path for the Exploration of Any Language Leading to Writing and Reading by Muriel Dwyer.
Emily says
May 7, 2014 at 10:33 pmI am a kindergarten teacher, and this post is SPOT ON! I will definitely be sharing it, because it sums up so many of the things WE teach, but parents can also work on at home!
Anna Geiger says
May 11, 2014 at 9:39 pmThank you so much, Emily!
Lauree K says
June 18, 2014 at 9:24 pmWe’ve managed to break the binding on several books already and our daughter meets all of these criteria. She just turned 3 today and ever since she could hold a book, she has studied it page by page instead of just quickly turning the pages. She comes by it honestly as her daddy and I have always been big readers ourselves. The ladies at our credit union always get a kick out of seeing her come through the drive thru because she’s always holding a book and “reading” it. I am looking forward to focusing on teaching her to read this coming fall and will continue to keep these concepts in mind. Thank you.
Anna Geiger says
July 6, 2014 at 12:25 pmHello, Lauree! Your daughter sounds a lot like my oldest who at just over a year always made sure she was looking at books right side up. I worked on early reading with her starting at about age 3. I didn’t have the time I would have liked since she had two baby brothers by this time, and it didn’t all come together until right when she turned 5. But once it clicked, there was no stopping her! I’ll look forward to hear how things progress with your daughter.
Jennie Contreras says
June 19, 2014 at 9:59 pmThx for this important infos/learning. I teach reading to very young children here in the Philippines. I could share these to the parents. Tthey too need to be educated.
Life as a Mother of Many says
June 20, 2014 at 1:28 pmI love this! Thanks for sharing all this information for moms to help their children. As a former teacher and now homeschool mom of seven…one of which has dyslexia, I would add to the phonemic awareness. Can they break a word into individual sounds. I have found that this is essential to being able to read and then spell the word later. 🙂
Anna Geiger says
June 24, 2014 at 9:34 amGreat tip about phonemic awareness! Thanks so much for sharing that.
Tammy Upshaw says
June 24, 2014 at 9:19 amI love this. It’s simple, yet gives you a ton of information that is easy to understand. I love the simple definitions and “how to’s”. I am sooooo using this next school year during my language and literacy parent meeting. AWESOME!
Anna Geiger says
June 24, 2014 at 9:35 amGreat tip about phonemic awareness! Thanks so much for sharing that.
Anna Geiger says
June 24, 2014 at 1:27 pmHi Tammy — you may have received a confusing reply to your comment on my blog. Sorry for that- it was meant for the previous commenter! I just wanted to thank you for your comments about the things kids need before they sound out words. Thanks so much for your interest in sharing the ideas with your students’ families; it’s definitely something that many parents misunderstand!
Kim Francis says
September 4, 2014 at 9:22 pmI love this article. I am a reading interventionist and would love to share this with my parent group. Is there a way I can print this without all the pictures and advertisements? Thanks.
Anna Geiger says
September 4, 2014 at 9:28 pmYes! At the very bottom of the post, you’ll see a tiny green “Print” button. Click on that, and you’ll have an option to remove images when you print.
Heather says
September 19, 2014 at 9:37 pmGreat post that explains the steps to reading.
Anna Geiger says
October 3, 2014 at 5:42 amThank you, Heather!
Kay says
October 1, 2014 at 8:56 pmThank you for your post. It’s helpful for me to teach my kids. Lots of stuff and fun activity to do. AWESOME 🙂
Anna Geiger says
October 3, 2014 at 5:42 amYou’re welcome, Kay – thanks so much for visiting!
Rosie Baleiwai says
October 11, 2014 at 6:23 amThank you so much Anna for the ideas you have shared. I am a special educator in Fiji and love the activities that I have seen on your Pin Interest boards. Awesome stuff that I will definitely be using.
Anna Geiger says
October 14, 2014 at 5:19 pmThank you so much for following along, Rosie, and for your kind comment! I hope you keep finding things here to use with your students.
Katie Pinch says
October 27, 2014 at 6:39 pmSuch a great post to help avoid frustration. -Katie @ALittlePinchofPerfect
Anna Geiger says
October 28, 2014 at 6:12 pmThanks, Katie!
Maree Haley says
November 4, 2014 at 8:16 amI love your website! You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into all of your work. I will share this post and others on my Facebook page for The Safety Educator. Thanks!
Anna Geiger says
November 7, 2014 at 6:28 amThanks so much for sharing, Maree!
Polly says
December 22, 2014 at 9:06 pmI wanted to share my homemade color coded phonics toolbox with you. It has done wonders for my child and her friend, both homeschooled. While kindergarten students, their phonic skills have soared with the use of this tool. I came up with this idea after watching an NPR special on math savants. Math Savants see numbers as patterns, colors and shapes. Thus, they are using more of their brain than only the math section due to the imagery. As I love the use of color in my manipulatives, it occurred to me to color code our phonics. The difference in my child’s confidence and ability shot through the roof. I no longer was bogging her mind down with phonics facts. The gray letters were clearly silent and sleeping. The brown letters say their name, particularly useful for the vowels. The green vowels are short. Those orange consonants or vowels, well, you must stop and think about it.
Thus, words like the present tense read and the past tense read are clearly distinguishable.
https://theyhomeschoolme.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/diy-color-coded-phonics-toolbox-free-printable-digraphs-trigraphs-diphthongs-hands-on-manipulative/
I cannot put to words why black text was an issue for my child. I can understand it. How do you know how to sound out a word that is just one long line of letters?
Now, after the fact, I have come to learn that my style of teaching phonics is synthetic phonics. I especially love the long vowel approach, similar to “School Phonics” called Open Court. The original Open Court, not the one that is in print now.
http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/reading-instruction.html
I am using Don Potter’s creation to school my child and my add on. They are doing amazingly well. For “spelling” and “handwriting practice”, I create a crossword puzzle. For letter retention and pattern recognition, I create a word search.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ryi49nezwu3puxo/AABmMDbyx5MA-PYF6QTH4gZaa
Anna Geiger says
December 28, 2014 at 2:47 pmThanks for sharing that, Polly! This looks like a very interesting idea and something I can send people to when they’re looking for a different phonics solution. I’ve pinned your post. Thanks again!
Corey Pollard says
January 4, 2015 at 10:49 pmThis is so helpful and in my training specifically with children with reading disorders this advice is absolutely spot on! I love all your tips and have really enjoyed checking out all of your posts.
Just in reading through some of the comments, I got to thinking, in my experience with it has been necessary to teach letter names and sounds. When we think about our daily experiences, everything has a name..as does a letter. At around 18 months kiddos learn in awe that everything they encounter has a label, a name. A cat is called a cat, it doesn’t say “cat” it says meow, and it’s furry, and sometimes it purrs. Much is the same of a letter. This is letter is called “C” it says /k/, but sometimes it also says /s/ and when paired with other letters it can say other things like /ch/. There is value in teaching the label or name of a letter, because many of our letters say more than one thing.
Reading and spelling really go hand in hand to complete the neural circuitry involved in the language processing of reading, in order to spell it’s really quite useful to know letter names, especially as phonics become more complex. It creates the building block or foundation of the process. Eventually only knowing DGE as /d/ /g/ /e/ will create problems in reading and spelling words like fudge.
Alas, total aside. I love this post and everything you do, it’s made a huge difference for my kiddos and the kiddos I work with 🙂
Anna Geiger says
January 4, 2015 at 10:56 pmHello, Corey! Thanks for giving me an encouraging comment to read as I stay up late putting some touches on a post for tomorrow – which happens to link to this one. I appreciate your thoughts and reasoning on why it’s useful for kids to know letter names. I agree wholeheartedly! I’m so thankful you’ve found resources here to help you with your teaching. 🙂
Jaguaress says
January 5, 2015 at 3:40 pmI read this list with interest, especially due to my being an early, avid reader. I was reading at a sixth grade level in first grade by school testing standards. While I agree with some of your points, such as needing to know the alphabet, other points confuse me as to why they would be required prior to teaching a child to sound out words, e.g. that a child must be able to count syllables in a word and that they must be able to identify the first and last sound in a word.
My mother read to me and my siblings practically from the day we were born. I remember being five years old and sitting on the couch beside my mom. She had my newborn brother on her lap and my sister on the other side of her, and she was reading a story to all of us. She also sounded out words and counted with us as we went about our daily lives. She encouraged us to play “school,” and she allowed us to watch the old versions of Sesame Street and the Electric Company every time they were shown. (I’m in my 40’s, so have to mention that they were the old versions. I don’t know that they teach children to read using phonetics like in the past.)
I believe her organic way of teaching me and my siblings words, numbers, and then eventually to read was a wonderfully spontaneous way to encourage us. Had she waited until we met specific parameters prior to reading to us and working with us, I’m not sure that all three of us would have been the excellent readers that we are today.
Anna Geiger says
January 5, 2015 at 8:37 pmThanks for sharing your story! We are of a similar generation, as I also enjoyed Sesame Street and the Electric Company. Like you, my mom read to us regularly (some of us sat up on the back of the couch so we could all see). My mom didn’t use a checklist before she taught me, either, and I was also reading quite early. This post is actually intended for parents who are anxious to teach their kids to sound out words but finding out that it isn’t working. I often have readers tell me, for example, that their 2 or 3 year old knows all his letters and sounds, but can’t sound out words. They want to know what’s wrong or what to do next. I direct them to this post – to help them see that their child may not be developmentally ready to sound out words. Doing the things suggested in this post can help them get there.
Mel says
January 9, 2015 at 10:58 pm“Sound it out” is not a prompt used in best practice classrooms due to the high number of words that are impossible for students to sound out which occur frequently in even the very earliest of reading books. Sound it out prompts the child to use one strategy which is visual, using the visual letters of a word to make an attempt, when we actually want children to focus on meaning. Another instance ‘the’; students need a base of known words before beginning to read as sounding words out takes away from meaning of the story. We would not want a child to sound out /t/ /h/ /e/ (e-like elephant) for “the”; nor do we want a child to begin with /w/ /a/ (like apple) /s/ for was. Reading is all about constructing meaning and there are so many phonograms that kids need to know in order to be efficient “on the fly” meaning driven readers. So rather than prompt a child with sound it out, prompt them to think about “what would make sense”.
Sakeenah says
February 13, 2015 at 10:17 pmA helpful list to gauge reading readiness. For some kids there are a few more things that need to line up. My son had all these skills, but he just couldn’t get it. I was suspecting dyslexia, but took him to a developmental eye doctor first. Turns out he couldn’t sound out words because they were moving around the page. He has double vision and other issues. He is now in vision therapy and progressing.
Anna Geiger says
February 15, 2015 at 8:00 amYes, good point, Sakeenah! There may be other issues to look into. So glad your son is progressing!
Denise says
February 19, 2015 at 9:22 pmYou are missing a step of two–
They also need to have a complete grasp of long and short vowel sounds– the ‘magic’ e, the r controlled and even some abstract vowel sounds.
They also need to have a large bank of sight words– words that they can use as models for the unknown word.
They also need to understand onset-rime. Chunking a word (looking for known parts) is FAR more effective and efficient in decoding unknown words than sounding out each letter.
Please add these steps!
Anna Geiger says
February 19, 2015 at 9:56 pmThanks so much for your comment, Denise! I didn’t include all the other phonics sounds and combinations in this list because I assume that’s what’s being taught when children learn to sound out words. (They start with knowing their short vowel sounds and consonant sounds, and the other concepts are taught as they’re ready.)
I don’t think kids need to know sight words in order to sound out words in isolation, but absolutely they need them in order to read books that make any sort of sense. Perhaps our definition of sight words is different. I usually think of them as words that can’t be sounded out (but they also include words that we see over and over again).
I thought that I covered the concept of onset/rime in the section on phonemic and phonological awareness, but perhaps I could have been more clear.
Rebecca says
February 22, 2015 at 9:23 pmAlthough I appreciate that there are attention and cognitive functions that need to be present I disagree that kids need to know the alphabet or the names of the letters before they can sound out words. I taught both my kids to read very quickly with NO prior teaching of the alphabet. I used a book called Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and the letter names and capitals aren’t introduced until about lesson 70 or 75.
Both of my boys (including a very late June baby) started kindergarten reading well beyond their grade level and it was all using this simple book.
In fact, I felt irritated when the teachers taught my kids that the letter a in an book said A like the letter name rather than uh like we pronounce it. It was like taking a step back to hear my kids it that way. I had to tell them that it was wrong to pronounce it like the letter name. That’s not how we speak or read as adults so why teach them the wrong way?
I also disagree with comments that looking at pictures is reading. It’s not. Reading is reading. As a parent who volunteers every week in my kids kinder and 1st grade classes I have helped a lot in the class and teaching the kids to look at pictures does not help their reading and decoding abilities. It seems, to me, that teaching the sounds worked really well. And the real focus ought to be on comprehension from the start as that’s what matters in the long run anyway. Anyway, I’m not a teacher but in my limited experience it seems like we teach reading backwards sometimes and miss the whole point of why it’s important.
Anna Geiger says
February 22, 2015 at 9:48 pmThanks for commenting, Rebecca! I taught my older two children to read without any scripted or synthetic program. Initially they used a lot of picture cues to help them read. Gradually we added phonics. Always, the focus was on meaning, which was why I felt it was important to have them use sight word readers in which they could not decode every word. They could figure out the words using picture cues, context clues, and grammar clues… in this way they were really focused on comprehension, not word calling.
As they were developmentally ready, we focused more and more on phonics. They both went from very basic sounding out to exploding in their reading right around their fifth birthdays. Both were reading fluently upon entering kindergarten, and now (as a kindergartner and second grader), both read and understand at a 4th or 5th grade reading level.
I am not entirely familiar with 100 Easy Lessons, but I always shy away from scripted or synthetic programs because I want to promote a joy and love of reading, and sometimes those programs hinder that.
Obviously, though, the program was a success for your family, so I thank you for sharing your story! Some of my readers may want to look into it.
Cherie says
July 13, 2018 at 5:44 amYes, exactly what Rebecca said!!! Do not teach the letter names until later. Teach lowercase sounds, only add in capitals as needed. And the word “a” is pronounced “uh”.
Anna G says
July 13, 2018 at 11:52 amI actually disagree with this. I don’t believe it’s necessary to teach sounds before letter names. I’m happy to discuss this further if anyone is interested in my reasons.
Marilynn Leedom says
February 25, 2015 at 11:24 amYour comments are very good. But I do have to take exception to the line about reading from left to right. Many languages read from right to left and some even from bottom to top and from the back to the front.
I think in a bilingual home, it is important to teach reading one language at a time. My Mother was bilingual in Lebanese. Her oldest brother never immigrated to America because he had chicken pox when the rest of the family came over. She had to write letters every week to him, and she found it very confusing to write English at school and Lebanese at home until she was in the third or fourth grade. I think that’s why she never taught any of us kids how to even speak Lebanese.
Anna Geiger says
February 28, 2015 at 1:42 pmThank you for sharing a great perspective, Marilynn!
Joyce F says
March 8, 2015 at 10:31 pmExcellent advice! I originally read this for my 5 yr old in K but now I will apply this knowledge to my 9 yr old with autism. Very practical advice, thank you much for sharing!
Renee Heinlein says
April 12, 2015 at 8:17 pmThank you so much for all of your hard work !!! Your site is wonderful for me as a parent who just wants to enrich my child’s world before entering formal school.
Anna Geiger says
April 18, 2015 at 8:27 pmYou’re very welcome, Renee – I’m so glad you’ve found things to help you help your child!
Bethany says
May 11, 2015 at 7:28 pmGreat! However, is there any better way?
Anna Geiger says
May 17, 2015 at 5:26 pmWhat do you mean, Bethany? I’m not sure how to answer your question. 🙂
Jen says
June 9, 2015 at 4:55 pmWeird. I never “taught” my four year old any of this, but I was reading through the list, I realized she already does all of these. I suppose because we are book worms?
It will be a useful tool for my two year old, though.
Jen says
June 9, 2015 at 5:12 pmPs- I should have also said thanks! 🙂
Anna Geiger says
June 24, 2015 at 5:23 pmHi Jen! That has been my experience too — that to many children these things come automatically after living in a print rich home. However I was surprised with our fourth to learn that a lot of this is not “automatic” for him. He needs basic instruction in concepts of print (“we start reading on this side of the page”) and needs more direct teaching for letters and sounds. But like you, I never really “taught” many of these things to our oldest kids – they just picked them up after listening to many, many books. Perhaps (most likely!) the problem is that, as our fourth, he hasn’t been able to listen to as many books as the others! Now that he’s 3 1/2, we’re making up for lost time. 🙂
Mel says
June 29, 2015 at 5:40 pmEffective literacy instruction would not include the prompt “sound it out” as there are far too many words that prompt would be highly ineffective for which in turn slows down the reading and processing of a child, equaling a loss in story meaning.
Anna Geiger says
June 29, 2015 at 5:42 pm“Sound it out” is all many parents know, which is why I addressed it here. I DO think it has a place, but not as a first choice. I think of it more as a last resort, as I prefer to offer prompts that focus on meaning. That said, children who are never asked to look closely at letters within words may resort to excessive guessing. So I’d never say that it should be completely excluded.
Christina Collinsworth says
July 11, 2015 at 6:23 pmGreat list but I disagree with the rhyming. Most of my students that I teach are ELL and low income and have no experience with English or books. The rhyming is important in English but not Spanish and most of my students do not pick up rhyming until towards the end of Kindergarten after they have started to speak and understand more English, yet they can sound out and read many words and books before they grasp the concept of rhyming. Other than that, good list!
Anna Geiger says
July 12, 2015 at 8:46 pmThanks for that perspective, Christina! I wonder if your students can rhyme in Spanish when they come to you. I think that the ability to hear words that rhyme is important, but perhaps it doesn’t matter what language children are able to do that in. But as you said, perhaps it isn’t a “must have” skill for every student. In my experience, it tends to be a warning sign when children (native English speakers) enter kindergarten and still can’t rhyme.
Christina Collinsworth says
July 15, 2015 at 8:05 amActually in Spanish, rhyming is not important. Most parents cannot rhyme and its difficult for our translators to explain rhyming to them. They come up with a few rhyming words to explain to the parents but in my area, rhyming is not taught nor important in Spanish. So I wonder if English is one of the few that it is taught in.
Roselyn says
December 22, 2015 at 8:33 pmThank you! to public teachers who KNOW that EVERY student needs these things at his/her level because the teachers are the experts!
Cecile says
December 24, 2015 at 10:21 amWow Im now motivated and more informed as to the approaches needed to prepare my child to read.
Heather says
January 18, 2016 at 12:02 pmAs a preschool director with a background in Elementary education, I am fully aware of the necessary steps to learning to read. However, I have found it difficult to communicate these steps in an easy to understand manner to my staff. This article is perfect. Accurate and easy to digest even for those with little background in reading education. I plan to share this article with my staff. Thank you.
Anna Geiger says
January 18, 2016 at 5:39 pmThank you so much, Heather! Your comment was a big day brightener to me – I needed that as I’m in the midst of sleep deprivation with our newborn! I’m so happy to hear that this article will be helpful to your staff.
Christilla says
February 28, 2016 at 9:21 pmAlthough I do agree with you that reading is more than just sounding words out and needs a few foundations, first I would like to question you on the need for knowing the alphabet in learning how to read. Sounds of the letters yes, name of the letters? not so much, as the child will not be in a spelling-bee or classifying words in alphabetical order… I think you should make a differentiation between these two knowledge (sounds versus names of letters). Too often people think knowing the alphabet is such an important first skill, why is it so?
Anna Geiger says
March 9, 2016 at 11:06 amHi Christilla! I know some teaching methods advocate teaching children the letter sounds INSTEAD of their names – as in, referring to the letter A as /a/. Technically, yes, that can work, but I feel that since knowing the letter names is important down the line, there’s no reason not to teach it when children are toddlers and preschoolers… as this is a time they (usually) learn their letters easily in a playful way. If a child just really struggled to recognize the letters, then a parent or teacher might bypass that step and go straight to sounds – which, as you point out, are the main thing when learning to sound out words.
Loralyn Eckstrom says
March 1, 2016 at 1:05 pmHi Anna,
Thanks for the great post! I’d love to share this with parents of my Pre-K students. I’m also wondering how I can print this without the embedded graphics. I don’t see the “tiny green ‘Print button” at the bottom of the post.
Anna Geiger says
March 1, 2016 at 8:19 pmHi Loralyn! I just put that “Print” button back in, so you can easily print now and delete what you don’t want. 🙂
Katrina Thomas says
January 6, 2017 at 12:21 amThank you for this!! My 3, almost 4 year old, is so ready to read like his big brother but this was an awesome checklist to read through so I don’t frustrate him! Love the counters in a cup for every word idea… I will do that for sure!!
Anna Geiger says
January 6, 2017 at 5:55 amYay – so glad this was helpful for you, Katrina!
Cindy says
March 4, 2017 at 4:42 pmI really, really love all you have to say!! I homeschooled my first 2 girls. I’m now a kindergarten teacher in my 5th year of teaching and I’m very impressed with your knowledge and I love how willing you are to share all your ideas and work!! Thanks so much!! <3
Anna Geiger says
March 5, 2017 at 7:29 pmThank you so much for your encouragement, Cindy! It means so much!
Lias says
April 21, 2017 at 12:58 amI have been teaching K-5 for 30 years and I want you to know that you are incredible!!! I love everything you make here!!! Thank you for sharing!!! Peace! Lisa
Anna Geiger says
April 22, 2017 at 5:28 pmThank you so much for that kind encouragement, Lisa!
Gaby says
March 26, 2018 at 2:27 pmVery helpful information. Thank you so much!
Anna G says
March 26, 2018 at 6:57 pmYou’re very welcome, Gaby!
Melissa says
June 20, 2018 at 5:38 pmI love this very informative article about early literacy skill! It was quite some time ago that most of us parents learned to read and instruction has come a long, long way! How exciting!
As an educator, I would like to point out that “sounding it out,” is like nails on a chalkboard to me. There are so many more effective and transferable reading strategies to give young learners. Sound it out will only work on CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words that are no more than 4 letters long. Looking for word parts, using the first sound& using the picture, thinking about what would make sense, are some the more effective strategies to use. Although children do need to be trained on how to effectively use these strategies, “sounding it out” is something that I tend caution parent about. Your child’s teacher will be able to give you some other strategies that are better in line with reading for meaning
Anna G says
June 20, 2018 at 8:07 pmThese are great points, Melissa. I use that phrase because it’s what most parents are familiar with – indeed, to many, “sound it out” is equivalent to reading. But in my posts in which I share printable books, games, etc. I do talk about the many different approaches to word solving.
Annie says
December 26, 2018 at 8:05 pmThe phonemic awareness has to come before the alphabet recognition. Sounds are more important than learning the letters. That comes next.
Gina says
May 20, 2019 at 1:05 pmHello!
I’ve been a fan of your page since I started teaching. Thank you for your amazing knowledge and resources!
Question: Do you recommend teaching the above skills in any particular order? Should I emphasize hearing sounds (via rhyming and syllables) before reviewing individual letter sounds? At the same time? After?
Apologies if this is a repeat.
Thanks again!
Anna G says
June 15, 2019 at 9:42 pmSo sorry for the delay here, Gina! I teach these things all at the same time, mostly informally. So no, I don’t necessarily recommend doing them in a particular order.