Help Your Child Learn to Read with Sound Games

Many children struggle with learning to read and often the struggles begin with the ears, not the eyes or the brain. If a child's ears are not hearing the differences between similar sounds, she cannot associate individual sounds to letter shapes. The English language uses several sounds for each alphabet letter, plus additional blends. If a child struggles with differentiating sounds the challenge of reading is multiplied. Helping your child improve sound-related reading skills need not be frustrating. In addition to phonics and flash cards, some games that target the sense of hearing might help.

If your child seems to be having more trouble with identifying sounds or hearing your instructions than you consider normal have your child's hearing checked and consider a speech evaluation. Some underlying problems can make hearing sounds and learning reading even more challenging. For the average child who struggles with hearing sounds as parts of words, the following games could be helpful-and fun.

Linking Lovely Letters

To play this game simply begin with a fun word and link as many words beginning with the same letter sound to create a funny phrase or sentence. The trick is to keep it fun and quick and switch to a new letter sound whenever a phrase gets too long or frustrating. For example: Strawberries swim south super swiftly... This game can be done orally or on paper.

First and Last

This game is similar to Linking Lovely Letters but uses the first and last sounds. The first sound of each word must be the same sound as the ending letter of the previous word. For example: Swing, green, needle, loop... Since needle ends in a vowel, it is useful to skip back to the ending consonant sound and continue the pattern. Hearing these sounds can be a challenge, so be patient.

Rhyme Time

Rhyming helps children hear sounds and sound patterns through repetition. Nursery rhymes and children's books with rhyming patterns are great ways to help your child hear these patterns. Pick a rhyme and memorize it with your child. Insert rhyming words into your daily routine. For example: "Let's get in the car-star-par-car. We have to go to the store for more." It doesn't have to make sense. It should be fun and silly-they will listen more closely if they think you are playing with them.

Alphabet Game

Start with a sheet of paper and write the alphabet down the left margin. Go back through the alphabet calling out words that start (or end) with each letter sound. These words can all relate to a common theme like food for a real challenge. This is a great game to work as a family. Older children can play along just as well as youngsters. In fact, some of the youngest in the family can be the most creative. It's best at this stage to accept any word that uses the same sound associated with that letter and not worry too much about various spellings. For example, "photo" sounds like it starts with "f" and beginning readers don't need to worry about this difference until they have been introduced to the "ph" blend.

Listening and processing sounds is integral to reading but learning these skills can be more fun with games. Have fun, laugh, and talk to each other.