Can anyone help me with sound buttons ???

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughters nursery teacher told me at the parents evening that she was working on sound buttons, where the children clap out the word eg say c-a-t cat while clapping in time with the sounds. and sh-e-ll shell.
I would like to play this with her at home too, so she knows that I'm interested in what she's doing.
When I don't understand what she's said to me, she'll sometimes do her sound buttons and sound it out to me.
I don't really have any experience of this, so if anyone knows how it works and how I can help her, I'd be greatfull.
BTW she's 3 years and 8 months old.

Mummyloveslucy - I've read your other thread today and it seems like Lucy is doing really well.

To be honest, I would just play lots of sound games with her like "I spy" and "I went to the shops and I bought". These will help her speech and phonological awareness in just the same way. You can always play "I spy with my little eye, something ending with xx". Or, just take it in turns to say rhyming words (either real or made up).

Using sound buttons is just a jargon way of saying "sounding out". It encourages children to break down the sounds in words which means that they will then be able to identify which sounds they want to write.

At 3 yrs 8 months, she has lots and lots of formal education ahead of her. Now is the time for play!

Thanks littlefish, sounds good to me. She's so enthusiastic about everything at the moment which is lovely. We love playing games together too.
A little girl from her nursery class has mooved in down the road, which will be fantastic for her. Up untill now, she had no friends nearby to play with.

mooved ?? I sound like a cow.