Alphabet Activities for Auditory Learners

Whether they are auditory learners or not, all young children can successfully learn the alphabet through activities that help them hear and speak what they are learning. Auditory learners learn best through hearing and speaking aloud. While many children are dominantly auditory learners, all children, despite their learning styles, learn best through a variety of learning activities that appeal to all three learning styles: kinesthetic (learns with hands on projects), auditory (learns best by speaking and listening), and visual (learns by seeing). So while incorporating these sound-based activities into your child's day, remember to provide plenty of alphabet visuals, such as ABC books and posters, and appealing alphabet manipulatives, such as alphabet blocks and alphabet magnetic letters as a supplement to these sound-based learning activities.

Teach the Alphabet Song and Other Songs

Auditory learners learn amazingly fast through music and rhymes. The easiest kick start to your child's academic literacy is to teach her the ABC song, taking extra care to slow down for the L-M-N-O-P section, which often gets muddled in kids' minds if not clearly enunciated.

Cookie Monster from Sesame Street has a great, adaptable song for learning letters:

C is for cookie. That's good enough for me.

C is for cookie. That's good enough for me.

C is for cookie. That's good enough for me.

Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie, starts with C.

Any word can be substituted:

A is for apple. That's good enough for me...

Or increase the learning with this version:

A is for apple. Oh, apple starts with A...

Don't forget to use your child's name. He'll love when you sing about him!

You can also make up a rhyme, song, or chant using the spelling of your child's name to help her connect her name to the letters that spell it.

S is for Sally.

S-A-L-L-Y

S is for Sally.

S-A-L-L-Y

Oh, how I love my little girl

Named S-A-L-L-Y!

Connect Sounds to Letters

One important concept for auditory learners to learn is how to connect sounds to letters. Begin by teaching your child the names of the letters using alphabet books, alphabet magnets, alphabet blocks, and any other alphabet toys your child has. Since teaching just a few things at a time to young learners is most effective, start with a few letters (A, B, and C are a good start) then add the letters of your child's name. Continue adding letters until you've taught the whole alphabet.

Once your child has mastered the names of the letters, start teaching them the sounds that letters make. "A says "ah" like a-a-alligator. Do you hear the A? A-a-alligator." Eventually, you will need to teach all the sounds that a letter makes, if a letter makes more than one letter. "A says "aay" and A says "ah"."

Try some of these alphabet activities for kinesthetic learners to reinforce you child's alphabet learning skills.