Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

How can I teach my daughter to read if she can't hear all the phonics sounds?

18 replies

mummyloveslucy · 09/01/2011 19:46

Hi, my nearly 6 year old daughter has quite a severe speech and language problem. She also dosn't seem to be able to hear or say certain phonic sounds.
When we play games like eye spy, she'll say things like "something beginning with g", it'll end up being house. Hmm

She is quite good at maths and really enjoys it but it's very hard to motivate her to do anything to do with phonics or reading. She likes being read too, but won't follow the words with her finger.

I just wondered how we can teach her to read if she can't hear all the sounds. She has had several hearing tests that have come back fine, but they won't test for auditory processing until she's at least 7.

We've tried sight reading but she hasn't really taken to that either, but the books are so booring I'm not supprised.

Do you know of any other methods we could try? Or would it be better to just concentrate on therapy to improve her auditory processing? We home educate her so there isn't as much pressure. I don't want her to loose the skills she has though, so I'll still need to practice phonics with her.

I'd be really greatful for any advice. Thanks. Smile

OP posts:
mrz · 09/01/2011 20:00

Auditory discrimination is the ability to detect similarities and differences when listening to sounds.

Pupils who have difficulties in this area may have:

* problems identifying speech sounds
* poor listening skills, especially when there is background noise
* difficulty discriminating between similar words
* difficulty with rhyming activities
* poor articulation of sounds and words

Activities to develop auditory discrimination skills:

  1. Listening 1 ? listen to sounds on CD, then ask her to: * point to a picture of the object making the sound and name it * point to a real object that makes the sound and then try it out.
  2. Listening 2 ? listen to the sound of real objects with eyes closed guess and name.
  3. Sound bingo ? listening to sounds on tape and covering the correct picture.
  4. Sound walk ? drawing pictures or writing down the names of the sounds they hear on the walk.
  5. Grouping sounds ? animals, musical instruments, vehicles, etc.
  6. Odd one out ? ask her to identify the sound that is not part of a group of sounds, eg. dogs barking, pig grunting, cow mooing, musical instrument playing.
  7. Musical discrimination ? discriminating between loud/quiet, high/low, fast/slow notes.
  8. Clapping or tapping rhythms ? you can use her name and polysyllable words. This activity can be linked with picture-noun recognition.
  9. Same/different 1 ? ask her to listen to sets of two everyday sounds and identify those that are the same and those that are different.
  10. Same/different 2 ? ask her to listen to sets of two words and identify those that are the same and those that are different, eg. bat/bat, bat/bet.
  11. Same/different 3 ? ask her to listen to sets of two words and identify those that rhyme and those that don't, eg. cat/mat, bed/bud.
  12. Hands up 1 ? ask her to put up her hand when she hears a particular sound (sounds given one at a time).
  13. Hands up 2 ? ask her to put up her hands when she hears a particular sound against a background of other sounds .
  14. Sound bingo ? discriminating between initial sounds.
  15. Rhyme time ? ask her to listen to a word. If it rhymes with the word that she has in her hand then she can keep it.
rebl · 09/01/2011 20:03

My DS is deaf. We accompany all phonic sounds with an action and a picture (like the SALT does, they're Jolly Phonics). We play loads of games with the sounds that he struggles with. He learns better if he's being physical so I have the sounds printed on A4 (with the associated picture to begin with) and laminated. Then we jump between them whilst making the sounds/actions etc or put a favourite toy on the one that makes the sound I'm making. We also play listening games that aren't phonic based at all. We have a cd with environmental noises on it and we listen to them and identify them. We listen to the sounds on our way to school (we walk) and try and identify them and where they're coming from. This is all to improve his listening skills which I've been told he needs to improve first before he can learn to read phonetically. He does exactly what your dd does with eye spy. He hasn't got a clue really. I'm not too worried yet but then he's only 4 and in Yr R.

mummyloveslucy · 09/01/2011 20:30

Thank you Mrz, that's really helpful! Smile I'll write all those down. We did play a similar game to the sound lottery one before. She found it very hard and gave up before the game had finished dispite loads of encouragement. That was about a year ago though, so she might have more patience now.
I take it you're a teacher mrz, you certainly know your stuff!

rebl- I like the sound of doing actions for each sound. Lucy is more of a visual learner so we've been told, so pictures and actions would be good. It's hard to get Lucy to listen as she's constantly talking, either to us or to herself. (Takes after her Dad) Grin this is possibly due to poor listening skills. She's in bed now talking to herself, she has been for the last hour.

OP posts:
rebl · 09/01/2011 20:35

ELC do a nursery rhymes and an Old MacDonald bingo CD game. Maybe she would find these better to start with?

mrz · 09/01/2011 20:40

Jolly Phonics has the following actions

s
Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss
a
Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a.
t
Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t.
i
Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i.
p
Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p.
n
Make a noise, as if you are a plane - hold arms out and say nnnnnn.

c k
Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck.
e
Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh.
h
Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h.
r
Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr.
m
Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm.
d
Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d.

g
Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g.
o
Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o; o, o
u
Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u.
l
Pretend to lick a lollipop and say l l l l l l.
f
Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say f f f f f f.
b
Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b.

ai
Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai.
j
Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j.
oa
Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh!
ie
Stand to attention and salute, saying ie ie.
ee or
Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore.

z
Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz.
w
Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh.
ng
Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ng...
v
Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv.
oo oo
Move head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock,
saying u, oo; u, oo. (Little and long oo.)

y
Pretend to be eating a yogurt and say y, y, y.
x
Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with an x-ray gun and say ks, ks, ks.
ch
Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch.
sh
Place index finger over lips and say shshsh.
th th
Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th,
and further for the th sound (this and thumb).

qu
Make a duck's beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu.
ou
Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou.
oi
Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy!
ue
Point to people around you and say you, you, you.
er
Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say ererer.
ar
Open mouth wide and say ah.

I know Debbie also devised actions for Phonics international so perhaps she may post a link

mummyloveslucy · 09/01/2011 20:42

That sounds good. I'll have a look. I find that Lucy is very good at getting the tune, rythem and pitch right when singing, but the actual words are very distorted.

She's going to start Suzuki piano lessons soon so that might also help. Smile

OP posts:
HaveAHappyNewJung · 09/01/2011 20:45

Watching thread as I have a 3.6yo (not planning on actually teaching her but she's getting interested IYSWIM) and also have a dyslexic DSD who still struggles with the basics.

I really really recommend the jolly phonics 'jolly songs' CD, DD loves it and I got the poster for her room too.

notheroldie · 09/01/2011 20:46

Theres also CUED speech which uses hand shapes/positions to 'sound' the phonics.
It helps with literacy as it shows the sound (in a hand shape/position), as you say it, so the child can lip read, or listen and use the cue (hand) to know what the phonic sound is, if they havent heard it properly.
Its too hard to explain, but I'm trying to use it for my deaf son, he can speak and uses hearing aids but some sounds he cant hear/say so the hand position reinforces what it is.

You can learn it online, and it gives a far better explanation than I can give!

www.learntocue.co.uk

CristinaTheAstonishing · 09/01/2011 20:47

Why 7 as a cut-off age for auditory processing? That sounds a bit bizarre. We taught DS (very deaf at the time, despite hearing aids) following an American book designed for hearing children. About 20 minutes a day, followed that. He didn't hear many of the sounds but deduced them from the shape of lips and context. Plus lots and lots of everything suggested above by mrz and rebl.

CristinaTheAstonishing · 09/01/2011 20:48

Oh yes, we also used Cued Speech as notheroldie mentions above.

HaveaHappy - I started with DS when he was 3y 2m old, 20 minutes structured reading teaching a day. Listening games etc made up the rest of the time.

notheroldie · 09/01/2011 20:49

Cued speech also raises the literacy achievement of deaf children, it can be used alongside sign etc.

Take a look and see. I'm loving learning it!

maizieD · 09/01/2011 20:50

If you are trying to teach phonics for reading you could also try associating the letters & sounds with the 'feel' that the discrete sounds have when they are articulated. You might need some input from a Speech therapist for this, or you could work it out yourself by going through the 44 'sounds' and noting carefully mouth & tongue position and strength of airflow. While phonics is primarily about letter/sound correspondences there is no reason why the 'feeling' of how spounds are produced cannot be used as a teaching tool as well.

I wouldn't let anyone pigeonhole your child as a 'visual learner', or any other sort of learner, at this stage. 'Learning styles' is completely unproven theory. Believing that you can only learn in one way is horribly limiting.

mrz · 09/01/2011 20:55
mummyloveslucy · 09/01/2011 20:57

Thanks for that mrz. We actually have a music C.D with the Jolly Phonics songs on but didn't know the actions. Would it be a good idea to show her a flash card of each letter as it's being said, so that she can associate the sound with the letter?

OP posts:
mrz · 09/01/2011 21:03

Yes I would always use the action in combination with the sound and the visual.

mummyloveslucy · 09/01/2011 21:06

It was her teacher who said she was a visual learner, but this is the same teacher who said that her auditory processing abilities would probubly improve as she gets older, as her ear cannals will get bigger. Hmm

She no longer attends this school. Wink

OP posts:
mummyloveslucy · 09/01/2011 21:15

Cristina- They say that the child isn't able to complete the testing process relibly until they are about 7. It seems such a shame to have to waste time when she could be recieving treatment for it.

This is why we are paying for her to have Johansen sound therapy. I just feel as if we need to be doing as much as we can for her and no time should be wasted.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread