Jolly Phonics - dd1 doesn't get it...

[emkana]

... how to blend the sounds together to make a word. So far she's done s a t p i n, she knows them well etc. but when they are written together as a word (eg "sit") she can tell me what sounds there are but can't tell me which word it is. Also when I sound it out to her ("ssss iiii tttt") she can't tell me which word it is.
How can I help her???? I get so frustrated!

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O, are you talking about my ds.
He leaned the letterland letters in nursery very quickly and has no problems with making the sounds of jolly phonics but if it's a word....
He would recognise the s and i and t and then I would say ssss iiiii ttt and he will then guess the word "walk"

how old is she?

lol mixed
We had the same thing today - dd1 guessed "envelope" WTF????
Hope somebody can help soon!

She's four and in reception.

How old is she ? ds didn't really get blending for a while and certainly not after the first 6 letters. dd (4) has already done about 15 JP sounds and doesn't get the blending yet but think it is a bit early to fret about it.

Practice and play games ! ds(7) sits and plays games with the individual letters , sorting them into simple words, which I think is good for both of them. You can also get JP lotto and matching games from elc but think they are better when they have more sounds under their belt.

it's probably a bit early then. I think they normally do all the sounds first before they start putting them together. It can take ages before it 'clicks' in their brain and they realise that the words make sounds and sounds make the words. It's good that she's got the idea of the individual letters so well.

(if you sound it out to her, do it quicker and quicker until you are actually saying the word - so slowly s - i - t then keep going till you are practically saying sit)

If you think about it, it's an enormous step to make - to realise you can make a word from letters that make sounds so it's not surprising that it takes a bit of time.

Thanks for your answers.
Anybody else?

emkana, see my thread " message for Christie or anyone else may know". no advice for you other than to say your DD seems to have grasped more than my two have. I get frustrated too and i know its pointless.maggie

have you tried those little magnetic jolly phonic jigsaws? Galt do something similar. The pieces have the letters on with parts of a dog, for example. So if your child can tell you 'd' 'o' 'g' that's fine. Then you put the jigsaw together and it makes a picture of a dog AND the word dog. So it sort of shows them that the letters make something as well as being sounds in their own right.

For that matter, you could just draw it and then cut it up. Hope this helps.

Early Learning Centre has a Phonics Bingo game- its about £4 and really helped my DS with a similar problem.

Hi emkana - this is a common problem and is a difficulty with the auditory aspect of reading e.g. hearing the sounds. it is quite a skill to hear those individual sounds all run together to make a word. It can just come with practice - not all children get it straight away, or you can do some extra work.

Play some simple games in everyday circumstances where you use a word broken into its individual sounds. (N.B. as this is an auditory difficulty, it can sometimes be of help to have the letters removed so a child is just focussing on listening, rather than having visual clues to cause too much going on in the head!) So, you might say, please can you pass me that p-e-n? and we're going out, you need to put your c-oa-t on etc etc

Also, can you just be sure that you are pronouncing the sounds in their purest form? e.g. often the letters are all given this 'uh' sound on the end e.g. suh, puh, tuh etc where it never actually exists in the spoken word. if you say 'stop' and listen to the 'p' at the end, it is a whispered sound with no voice. This is how it should be said on its own. Similarly, 'nnnn' is a longer sound with no extra 'uh' on the end - 'nuh' listen to the end of the word 'listen' for example! Many of us learned to read perfectly with this inccurate pronunciation, but for those children with difficulty hearing the sounds, it is important they are said correctly. sssss-u-nnnn sounds so much better than suh - u - nuh.

So, I would

check you are saying the sounds correctly
play spoken games in everyday situations
carry on what you are doing - it sometimes takes just a little longer but will come with consistent practice

Thank you very much everybody!

DS2 is in reception and they're just learning the letters. I wouldn't worry at all just yet. Personally I think we put far too much pressure on the wee ones at 4 and 5 in this country but that's just my opinion.

I agree - I think all this only works best when the children are ready for it and are motivated.