In Orton-Gillingham lessons, students are taught to isolate each individual phoneme (sound) in a word. For example, the word bat has three sounds – /b/, /a/, /t/. The word ship also has three sounds – /sh/, /i/, /p/. This is part of what is called phonemic awareness and is at crucial step in learning to read. On today’s post, I am going to show you different ways on how Sound Segmentation can be taught.
Compare and Match Sounds in Different Words
You can begin teaching sound segmentation by asking your child to match the very first sounds in words and then the final sounds.
It is helpful to have a set of cards with pictures of everyday objects (man, boy, girl, cat, dog, house, book, etc.). You can also cut out pictures from magazines and use those.
Begin by asking your child to identify the first sound in a word such as man. Show your child the picture and say, “say man. Good. What is the first sound you hear in the word man. Yes, you hear the mmmm sound.”
Then lay out five or six pictures and ask your child to say the names of each of the pictures and then to group together all the objects that begin with the mmmm sound.
You can also lay down 3 pictures and ask your child to name each picture. Then ask, “Can you show me which one of these pictures begins with the mmmm sound?”
You can also go outside on a nature walk and look for as many things as possible that have the mmmm sound.
Once your child is successful at matching beginning sounds, work on ending sounds the same way. “Say the word bat. What is the last sound you hear in the word bat?”
Pulling the Words Apart
Your next step in teaching sound segmentation is to help your child pull individual words apart.
You can ask your child to clap for the number of sounds he or she hears in a word. For example, “say the word pat. Clap for each sound you hear in the word pat.”
Your child can also tap on the desk for each sound or stomp their fists. I like to use sound tokens. The child listens to a word and then moves the sound token into a box for each sound in the word.
You will want to go slowly with this activity and have your child pull apart relatively simple two and three sound words such as shy, cat or mop. Here are some you can try out…
Two – sound words:
Is, to, do, sew, shoe, tie, day, it, my, knee, shy, zoo, chew, row, mow, key, see, tow, be, hay
Three-sound words:
Cat, bat, cab, sheep, pan, map, can, jeep, cub, mice, fish, book, feet, man, dog, nap, jet, tag
Is Your Child Struggling with this Activity?
Teaching sound segmentation in reading can be tricky. The best advice I can give you is to designate a short time every day with your child to work on this important phonemic awareness skill.
Thank you for reading my post today. You might also enjoy reading my previous posts:
How to Teach Letters and Sounds Correctly
Beginning and Ending Sounds Movement Game
Please don’t leave without checking out the PRIDE Reading Program. The PRIDE Reading Program is an Orton-Gillingham curriculum that is used by teachers, tutors, and homeschooling parents worldwide with great success.
