ds (nearly 3) wants me to spell everything for him/ reads letters out a lot but not sure whether I'm doing the right thing

[MNersanonymous]

Ds asks me to spell things for him A LOT....i.e. spell x mummy. He also reads letters individually using the letter sounds (often off labels e.g. most impressively so far he managed to spell out Pellegrino on a bottle of water - how poncy is that!!) But he hasn't really got to the point where he puts the sounds together to work out the word he's looking at even if it's a simple word like c-a-t.

He's only 2.11 so I really don't have a huge burning desire for him to be reading BUT he seems to really want to and I don't know whether I'm helping or going to hinder him later on.

Firsly, should I be introducing blends when he asks me to spell something with say an 'sh' or 'sk' in or just sticking to the sounds?

Do I need to help him get to the next stage of actually working out the letters add up to the particular word (or will that happen on its own?)If not how would I do that?

I'm worried if I just keep spelling things out with individual sounds rather than blending I will cause problems later on. I have to reply so there's not really an option of not saying anything!

Are there any books that I could consult so that when he asks these questions I am actually getting it right?

I would just keep doing as you are doing. Don't initiate it, just answer his questions as and when asked.

For words such as shop - I would go for sh-o-p rather than s-h-o-p as then it introduced the idea of the blended sound in a very basic way. then when he is a bit older and asks further you can explain that s and h together make the sh sound, etc.

You don't need to help him with the idea of putting letters together to make a sound. That will come with time. As he says the spunds, rather than the letter names, it will get more obvious to him eventually.
Always use letter sounds and not names when spelling out too.

As Hulababy said, just answer his questions as and when he asks.

What I would do if he asks to spell something is spell it phonetically, rather than by the letter names, and use blends, so sound out 'shop' if he wants you to spell it, as sh o p.

Look online for guidance on how to pronounce the letters phonetically properly, as a primary teacher I did have problems when well meaning parents had tought their children the sounds of words incorrectly, so for example had pronounced the letter t as ta, or h as ha. If you teach a child this way, it can get very confusing when they go to sound out a word, they will sound out 'top' for example os ta o pa. Kind of hard to then work out what the word is!

Good luck, the best thing is to keep your child interested in the written world from a young age, this will lay excellent foundations for reading later on in life.

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/local/clld/las/support.html take a look at the parents leaflet for ideas.

My first daughter was very similar at the same age, and is now in Year 1. As others have suggested, I just stuck to answering her questions, using the sounds letters make rather than their names. I vaguely tried to use clusters like "sh" and "th" the way they sound, but sometimes she got cross, because she wanted me to say the individual letters.

I had the occasional attempt at getting her to hear how the letters blended (e.g. c-a-t cat), but she really didn't get that so I never pushed it. Just carried on doing loads of reading to her and playing games involving letters and words.

When she got to Reception (aged just turned 4), she knew all the individual letter sounds but not things like "sh". It didn't seem to bother her that she had to learn them again, along with the rest of the class. She picked up blending the letters together very, very quickly and I think all that early exposure to letters did give her a flying start.

I think the biggest thing I was stumbling over was indeed what to do with the blends - e.g. for sh in ship, whether to say 'suh, huh' together says 'SH'/ shuh' or to just say 'SHuh'.

He did learn the letter names first but has switched to sounds now given that I realised we were leading him up the garden path with that. I didn't force any of this on him - he just really likes letters and words etc. - just in case anyone accuses me of being a hothouser!

I used this with DD2 when she was struggling with reading and her school were not doing phonics consistently at that time (they are now). DD3 was then about the same age as your DS and she used to sit in on the lessons and picked up quite a lot. I don't think I'd want to follow it as a complete programme but it is a very good book for parents who are unsure about correct letters sounds and blending - I was a phonics novice until I realised that unlike DD1, DD2 was never going to pick up reading the look and say way.

I've found it impossible to avoid the letter names - and dd (nearly 3) has now decided to learn the alphabet song whith the names from some toy or other. I have found though that she seems to be OK when I say that letters have a name (blah) and a sound (bleah). I don't really know how else to deal with her using both and can't see how to prevent her being exposed to both. She sometimes spells out the odd word but is mainly into the letters.

Acinoyx - ds enjoys starfall.com and it's been a great fun way for him to learn the corresponding letter sounds when he originally knew the names. Again he asks for it sometimes(although obviously I showed it to him originally)

He seems perfectly happy with knowing both sounds and letters - e.g he will point at an A, say A, then A says ah etc.

Now he has switched when reading individual letters in words - not sure if nursery have been emphasising the letter sounds.

Dd learned her letters originally from starfall - it was recommended to me from another online bb. It's a great site.

MNersanonymous - regardless of whether or not you do blends, please don't say 'shuh' or 'suh' or 'huh' that is wrong, say 'sh' or 'sss' or 'hhh' without the 'uh' sound after it.

There are somegood websites that teach you how to pronounce the phonics correctly, look them up. It is important to get it right.

How do you say the sound the letter b makes without getting it 'wrong' then? Or g? w?

OMDB - that is exactly the sort of thing I am worried about.

Can you give me the names or URLs of some of the good websites please?

Please please don't teach your child /suh/ or /huh/ or /buh/ or /cuh/ it makes it really hard for them to blend the sounds to read.
/sh/ is a single phoneme (sound) not a blend and is taught that way in schools others are ch th and ng

Mrz - where can I find a book or website which will teach me how to do all this correctly - I have to do it with him as he is asking so I need to get it right.

The book I linked to further down is good for this. It is very systematic.

Buy the Jolly Phonics CD and listen carefully and you'll get it. So will your DC - I have to say this is the only childrens CD I have ever had in my car, the tunes are OK!

Lastly it is a tricky situation you are in. If you DC continues to develop on this track and ends up rading before school - choose your school very very carefully. Otherwise your DC will be bored to tears.

Thanks.
I presume that although you can never tell, it does seem very likely he'll be able to read somewhat before he starts school (in 16 months time). It's not a fad as he has been really into letters and words for as long as he could talk.

I think the fact he is young for his year will at least help a bit with the boredom issue.

Will get the JP stuff I think as I'm pretty sure that this is the system they use at my favoured school for him.

MNers... having a summer birthday has certainly helped DD1 in this respect. She was well ahead with letters etc when she started Reception, but had plenty of other things to get to grips with, so was never bored. I think it might have been a different story if she'd been one of the older ones.

And I'm sure you've thought of this, but be wary of teaching him too much from the system that they use at the school he's going to. By all means be informed by it, but do leave him something to learn alongside his friends.

DD1 knew all her letter sounds when she started, but didn't know the Jolly Phonics actions and learning the actions kept her sufficiently entertained that she didn't notice she was re-learning something.

That's a good idea. I might look at the JP sounds and just do those when he asks (to be honest he is interested enough to not need the incentive of the actions making it more fun) Then he can learn the actions at school with his buddies. This way I'll at least give him the right sounds!

I would actually be a bit worried if he had a Sept or Oct birthday but it does make a big difference and also the fact he knows a lot of the academic stuff for reception already means I'm less worried about him being the youngest....although still worried about him coping emotionally and with a full school day - he will be exhausted I imagine!