How can I get my 4 year old to learn letter sounds?

Question

I am working with my 4 year old to prepare him for kindergarten. We have been working on couting to 20, colors, and letters. I am trying to teach him letter sounds but am having difficulty getting him to remember their sounds. We have flash cards with the upper and lower case on one side and a picture that is associated with the letter on the other. He still can't remember the sounds using the cards. What has worked for you? Songs, rhymes, or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

teach him a word then sound it for him. Like fa-i-va-e. but teach him that some times that different letters sound different sometimes. PH--F.

my sister did it now she can read very,very good. Almost as good as me and i'm 13. Shes in kindergarten. Her teachers says shes outstanding.

Answer 2

Get the LeapFrog movies.  You can probably check them out at the library or get them at Walmart, etc.  

Anytime my son forgets a sound, I just sing the song from their Letter Factory movie and he remembers immediately.  "Every letter makes a sound, the A says..."  All 4 of their movies are great.  I wish they'd make more.

Answer 3

See-N-Say.

Answer 4

The picture will likely confuse him at this stage.  As will mixing upper and lower case.

About 98% of what we read is lower case (a rough estimation).  Start there.

Cut out sandpaper shaped letters and glue them on to painted wooden boards.  Your son can trace the letter and say the sound.  

Be SURE to ***NOT**** add the "uh" sound to the sounds.  This causes a major distraction to the child's learning.  (To show what I mean, it's not a buhaybuhee, but a baby.)  I cannot tell you how many students have come into my class "knowing" their letter sounds only to have me take the steps for them to forget them so I can reteach them.

First period:  Trace the letter and you provide the sound for him to hear.

Second period:  After he hears 2 or 3 (depending on how well he is learning them), ask for recognition.  "Which one is /t/?"

"Which one is "/s/?"

Third period:  See if he has it mastered.  "What is this one?  What is that one?"

Keep a chart with all the letter sounds on it.  As he gets through each period of a sound, fill in a triangle next to the sound.  (The triangle has 3 sides.  If you did first period, put a line.  If he can identify the sound with the 2nd period, put another line.  If he has the sound mastered in the 3rd period, put the third line to complete the whole triangle).

As he learns several sounds, he may (or may not) be able to put the sounds together to write words.  Place three sounds that make phonetic words next to each other.  "m" "a" "n."  See if he can sound it out.  If he can, great.  If not, ask him to say it faster a few times.  Then leave it alone and see it as a practice of just saying the individual sounds.

Realize that 4 is the age where children generally take a strong interest in this, but not all children acheive reading or writing skills at this age.  They do not all even learn all the sounds at this age.  That is OK.  The child is beginning to build the connections in his brain.  It will happen naturally over time if in the right environment.

Matt

Answer 5

Try asking him questions throughout the day that require answers with the numbers/colors/letters you are working on. For example, if you are trying to learn colors, ask him what color his shirt is, and if he pronounces it wrong, ask him again. If he doesn't remember, remind him of the word and ask him to repeat it after you.

Answer 6

Leapfrog DVDs!

Letter Factory & Word Factory

The Dvd has catchy songs that teach each letter & its sound.

It's fun!

Letter factory has a story line of Tad going into different rooms at the letter factory.

Each room represents a different letter.

During his time in the room he discovers what the letter sound is, He says I get it!

Then he sings -The A say aaa, the A says aaa, Every letter has a sound the A says aaa!

...and so on!

You'll be Amazed how fast your 4 year old picks it up!!

I've recommended this a lot.

Every child I know who has this, has learned from it!

If for some reason this doesn't do it...

I agree...just relax. They learn it all in Kindergarten- through songs, games, repitition, & with thier friends!

Answer 7

Don't go to fast. Let him learn one letter sound a week. Do lots of activities with that sound. For example when you are teaching the sound of "p" You might color the letter p with purple and pink and have pizza for lunch and punch a punching bag and name all of his friends and family that begin with p  and eat peaches and pickles. etc. It takes at least ten times hearing something new to remember it. If you teach a new sound before he remembers the original sound he will forget the original sound and you will just have to teach it again.

Answer 8

Letterland!

has a storybook, as well as a tape reading the story (cd) and a cd with the songs that go along with it-songs have actions too. The pp's i had last year loved it (me too - love the songs!)

Answer 9

Letter sounds and phonetics are important, but aren't going to set him behind if he doesn't know them by heart...

My suggestion would be to start with things that are very familiar: His name letters, a pet's name letters, a favorite toy or book's title letters, etc.

Another thing that I could suggest would be to create a "special time" in the child's routine where you go over letters, such as during his afternoon snack or while preparing lunch, bath-time, etc.  this will help establish more familiarity for your son and put him more at ease about learning the sounds of letters. For example,  If bath-time is a fun time for him, I know that they now have foam letters that stick to the side of the tub that you could use...Or simply sitting by the tub and going over the letters he already knows and then adding a new one when you think he is ready!

Be sure to take it at his own pace and remember that each child learns at their own pace and in their own style.  Look out for that style- Does he learn things through movement or touching things, seeing things visually or through hearing things?  If you can hone in on that (or those) learning keys it will help a lot!!

Hope this helps!

Answer 10

You should teach him in a fun way for example write a song or make a poem or keep on teaching him and when he learns give him a reward. The most important thing is to teach him with love and care don't get angry at him.

Good luck!

~Sanah~

Answer 11

Relax!!  it will all be repeated in Kindergarten.  They will be teaching the way kids learn and have additional ideas for helping kids remember.  My kids learned from repetition - not force.  They couldn't pronounce K's they came out as T's.  So when they pronounced a sound correctly, I made them repeat it over and over.

Answer 12

Don't stress over it.  That is what kindergarten is for.  If he knows all of the upper and lower case letters, can count to 20 and knows his colors, he will enter kindergarten ahead of a lot of children anyway.  

I think it's good to work with him and introduce the sounds, but please don't push too hard.  It's great for him to be ahead of the game, but you don't want him to be bored in Kindergarten next year.

Look for an alphabet book that has only 1 picture for each letter.  Make sure they are familiar objects, too.  Or you could work together to make signs on the computer for each letter.  Focus on only 1 letter at a time.  If you talk about A on Monday, don't talk about another letter until at least Tuesday.

Good luck!  It's wonderful to hear a parent that concerned for her child! :)

Answer 13

For me. Well I am 11 years old and you have to get it into his self concious mind. EVernight before he goes to sleep go over it with him about 10 times. Sounding them out and then have him copy you sounding them out. DO that until he falls asleep (he should allready be in his bed lying down) do that every night and morning.

Answer 14

Try the hooked on phonics program..it works like a charm... you can also download songs off of many websites such as http://www.edhelper.com...try google searching it maybe...hope i'm of help...best of luck

Answer 15

Buy him a fun learning toy its been working with my children