Letters/phonics before starting school

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DS2 starts school in September. He has SEN and has an EHCP. Recently he's become very interested in letters which is great but I'm not sure whether I should be teaching him letter names or sounds (or both?).

He has a severe speech disorder and can't make all of the letter sounds but obviously still needs to hear them. So I'm not sure if I should be teaching him the letter names too. DS1 is at secondary now and I can't remember much of what we did. And DS2 is so different anyway.

As he's so interested I want to encourage him. But I don't want to confuse him either as school is going to be hard enough for him as it is. Does anyone have any advice please?

You could ask the school which system we use and use the same system so as not to confuse him? our school uses Jolly Phonics and you can buy the CD/book online.

Have a look at the Alphablocks on iplayer or you tube. My son loved them during his letter obsession and they teach the letter sounds well.

I thought of that after I posted so have rung and left a message at the school!

He loves alphablocks! I think this is where his interest has come from

Focus on letter sounds and recognising words that sounds with that same sound - don't worry about the difference between c for cat and k for king or kite as the sounds are the same.

So teaching him the phonetic sound for each letter?

yes reception class is all about phonics. he will be ahead if you teach him some now. alphablocks is good and ispy is very educational too xx

Phonetic is best.
If you play I-spy use phonetic sounds for ease. Try not to pick an object with a silent letter e.g. knight and sometimes you'll have to say the first 2 letters eg. sh (for shoe)

We started with recognising the letter that their name started with and the house number. They moved onto the letter that their siblings names and mum/dad started with. First word that they all wrote was "mum"❤️

thanks crazed zombie you explained the ispy perfectly. I just wanted to say it won't be a negative if he has already learnt some of the curriculum a good teacher will still be able to challenge him x

A little rhyme DS learnt was "my name is A" (whilst patting your head) "my sound is a" (whilst wiggling your ears) so they learn that the letters are called one thing but make a different sound.
Cbeebies Alphablocks is good for phonics and the episodes are nice and short.

Thanks everyone. His class teacher has just called back and also said that phonetically is best so I'll keep going with that.