If you're confused about how to introduce sounds and letters to your child and explain the difference between them, watch this slideshow!

1. What’s the difference
between letter sounds
and letter names?
How should you talk Here’s a short guide to
abut them with your clarify this
child?
And 6 tips to help
Talk only about names? improve your child’s
Talk only about sounds? literacy
Talk about both?

2. The sound of different
languages
Children are born with the capacity to learn
any language
They learn what they hear
If they hear several languages at once, they
can learn several languages at once
They want to communicate!

3. What happens when we
can’t speak to someone
but we want to
communicate?
We write…they read

4. Letters represent the
sounds of a spoken
language
There are many different alphabets, eg
Roman…26 letters
Greek…24 letters
Welsh…28 letters `

5. Our alphabet is a code…
but you can’t use a code
unless you know what
it’s for
So time must be spent exploring the sounds
of spoken language before introducing the
code for them
But how do we do this?

6. Draw attention to sounds that are very
similar…make up and point out rhymes
Draw attention to spoken words, eg step out
the words in an oral sentence…yes…with
feet!
Draw attention to syllables…the chunky parts
of words…start with names
Draw attention to the sound a spoken word
starts with…say the word slowly to help your
child hear it

7. The next step is…
Listening for the last sound in a word…this is
harder
Breaking up a spoken word into sounds…
eg, put down a finger for each sound you
hear in the word dog…
/d/ (duh), /o/ (ohh), /g/ (guh)
Remember these are SPOKEN words
This is not about letters

8. For success…
Stick to short spoken words at first
The easiest sound to hear is the first sound
The next easiest is the last sound
Middle sounds are harder to hear and isolate
at first

9. Your child may only be able to hear and
isolate the first sound
Give them lots of practice doing this so they
feel successful at it
At the same time, start showing them to listen
for, say and remember the last sound

10. Be clear about letters
When a child doesn’t understand that letters
are code for spoken sounds, working on the
alphabet means very little to them because
they don’t understand what it’s for
They need to learn the names of the letters
and the sounds they represent at the same
time
Take it slowly!

11. How to explain letter
names and sounds
“The name of this letter is B and it makes a very short
sound, buh.” (/b/)
“Can you say buh quickly?”
“Here’s a word that starts with this buh sound…bus.”
“Can you hear the buh sound at the beginning when I
say the word bus slowly?”
“We write the letter B when we want to write a word
that begins with this buh sound.”

12. Some letters represent very short sounds,
eg /b/, /d/, /g/
Some represent much longer sounds, eg
/f/, /s/, /m/
It’s a good idea to point this out and get your
child to practice saying them with a focus on
length

13. Why talk about letter
names and sounds at
the same time?
Many children get confused and mix up letter
names and sounds when asked to identify
letters that are not in alphabetic order
This frequently leads to reading and writing
problems

14. Letter names are an anchor point for children
because they never change
Later on, they discover that many letters
represent other sounds when used in different
spelling patterns
When a child knows that the letter A is always
called the letter A, they cope with its sound
representations in different spelling patterns
much more easily

15. Read more about…
reading comprehension
improving writing
math for kids