DS is asking what letters are - letter names or phonics?

[BertieBotts]

DS is 2.5 and now he's mastered numbers he keeps asking me what number this is, pointing at letters e.g. on signs and in books. I don't know whether to tell him A is "ay" or "ah" - which is correct? He's not at preschool yet so I can't ask his teacher there. I'm just conscious from seeing various threads about reading etc that if you do it wrong it can be a lot of work to undo by teachers later. Also I'm not really sure about phonics and how that all works.

I know he's young and I would have just left it but he seems really interested and keeps asking. I don't really want to get into buying him loads of phonics books and making it into an activity or anything.

I'm having the exact same thing with my DS (2.11) and have the same concern about not telling him the wrong thing but not wanting to turn this into a mammoth flashcard activity. My MIL was a reception teacher and loathed kids coming in having been taught letters incorrectly as she spent so much time undoing it - both spoken but also written (e.g. children only being able to write in capitals) - so I'm conscious of not wanting to do it wrongly.

I'm certainly no expert but my DD had no trouble learning both. She accidentally learned capitals very young because of a computer toy, but only more recently has started on phonics with small case letters. She understands that the letter m says mmmm (NOT muh!) and s says sssss (again, not suh) etc.

Oh and she knows that we normally use baby letters (small case) but sometimes we use mummy letters (capitals) like at the start of her name)

I would say phonics, as most schools will teach phonics now. Any chance you can contact his possible school (or ask a mum with kids there) what they use.

You can teach letter names and phonic sounds at the same time (after all kids easily understand something is called a bird and the sound it makes is 'tweet'), but I would stick to just the phonics to be on the safe side. Make sure you pronounce the sounds correctly so that e.g. L is Llll not Luh. Have a look at the Phonic International website - lots of free resources on there to print out etc.

We were told at our school that they needed to know both but start with the letter name and then progress onto the sound. ELC do some really good jolly phonics packs/dvds/cards etc that cover all this. Sounds like your little one would find them helpful.

My next door neighbour has her boys at the school I'm hoping he'll go to so that's a good idea, thank you :)

I had only recently heard the ssss not suh thing. Thanks for mentioning it :) That's a good point Woo about names and sounds being different.

The consensus is that lowercase is better to stick to than capitals, yes?

Definitely teach letter sounds - that is what they will need when starting to read. It gets so confusing for them if they only know the names. Try ssounding out 'cat' as SeeAyTee and see if you know what animal you're talking about

That's what I thought Seeline - but then wasn't sure if it was better to learn the names first. Also it can be hard to say some of the letter sounds in the context of "That's ddd" but maybe I'm misunderstanding... I'll have a look at the phonics website someone mentioned anyway :)

My DCs didn't do the Jolly Phonics at school - just a basic 'what does a letter sound like' approach. I would stick to that if I were you - it's easier to progress onto whatever system they use at school from there. Mind you if your LO is so interested at this age he's likely to be reading by the time he starts school! Don't push things - just answer his questions as he asks.

Phonics most definitely. They'll learn the later names over the first couple of years of school.

Is this a good site does anyone know? I'm finding the Phonics International site quite sales-heavy.

www.phonicsplay.co.uk Just looking for some basic info for me really.

True Phonics International is more of printable resource than games as such (they have lots of worksheets to print out for kids to colour etc). Also they do have a sound library so you can see how each sound is pronounced.

There are some American sites with some games too (some with limited free access), like Starfall and Headsprout. Be wary of US pronunciation though. Kids do like the games

No letter names here in Scotland until at least P2! I know kids in P3 in fact who still spell aloud phonetically! I personally hate it and my son was reading and writing before starting school so we taught him the letter name with the phonic sound. "This is an 'ay' and it says 'ah'. This is an 'ess' and it says 'sss'. This is an 'el' and it says 'lll' etc... He has never had a problem with knowing both. When he's in school I suspect he spells aloud phonetically because that is what they are supposed to do, but at home he uses the proper letter names. It's all Jolly Phonics up here and while it's good for some things, you do have to remember that it doesn't work for every child and particularly with different accents on the vowels it can get very confusing for children. (I have teacher friends in NI who have had no end of trouble with it as it just doesn't work with a Northern Irish accent)

Phonics International have just produced a FREE resource for little ones of pre-school age.

Have a look at Teeny Reading Seeds:

www.phonicsinternational.com/trs.html

Ooh cheers for that maverick, DD is starting to learn now so any resources are useful!

I use "The name of the letter is X, it makes the sound Y". (Obviously with the appropriate and matching name and sound, not x and y )

Hi I run preschool numeracy and literacy classes in Sevenoaks and teach phonics to give your little ones a head start before they go to school. It's all done through fun and play. visit www.babysign.org.uk and click on the stage 3 tab for more details. Tx

Maverick
As usual, thanks alot
Great link

And thank you, Greythorne. It's so nice to be appreciated.

I agree with 2plus2 and Snowdrops. There is no reason children can't learn letter names and sounds simultaneously. They can even learn multiple sounds per letter (ie C usually sounds like "ck" but sometimes (before an e or i) sounds like "sss"). As someone else pointed out, children are capable of learning animal names and sounds simlutaneously. They can even learn multiple sounds per animal (a DOG can say "woof" or "bow-wow", etc). If you teach C="ck", you might get questions such as my son asked when he was 3: The day after learning "C=ck" in kindergarten, we saw a police car on the way to school. He asked me "mommy, why does "police" have a "ck"?