Teaching letter sounds

Letter names are helpful. But when it comes to reading, sounds are the bit that get kids reading.

So when you introduce a new letter, give your child the name and the sound.

Instead of:

“This is M. It’s called em.”

Try:

“This is M. It says mmm.”

Then have a little play:

M says mmm.
M is for monkey.
Can you find something else that starts with mmm?

That's it.

No big lesson. No need to relearn the alphabet.

Just start putting a little more emphasis on the sounds.

Once they know a few, you can start joining them together:

m-a-t → mat

And suddenly those letters aren't just letters anymore.

They're reading!