Blending

[Mumofsend]

I am really struggling to support my 5 year old DS (reception) with the basics of blending.

We have a little book of sounds and for instance:

'Pen' he will sound out 'b-e-n' and then go 'egg' as an example

I've tried all the usual tricks and I think we are both frustrated.

Any tips?

I'm really conscious of him getting behind

Are you uk? At my ds school they do phonics and initially just focus on sounds. Once child is getting hang of sounds they move on to blending sounds together. Alphablock cartoons are a fun way to learn.

Yes, South coast

Can he blend the word if you sound it out for him?

With DD I sort of slowed down the word so the so the sounds ran together a bit. It feels like they are never going to get it and then suddenly they do.

Honestly I think
Buh eh nuh EGG is a perfectly normal phase. Don't worry.

Agree with pp above about slowing it so it mushes

Buh eh nuh
Buuhehhnuhh
Ben

I agree with above posters about seeing if I can hear it if you say the sounds. You could "sound talk" whilst doing everyday things: "Can you get your c-oa-t?" "We're going to the p-ar-k!"

Make sure when you are/he is saying the sounds that they're "pure sounds" without the schwa on the end - video explains it.

When I worked in Y1 I had success with a child who couldn't blend by getting him to "press sound buttons" underneath the sounds (I think it was dots with a pen on a whiteboard) and say the sounds, then slide them together whilst running his finger underneath. I made sure the first sound was a stretchy one (like m or f, as opposed to a bouncy one like b or c) to make it easier.

If you're trying to get him to sound out words it's important they're made up of sounds he knows - it sounds like he's confusing b and p, so that's confusing things more (see how the phonics scheme his school uses distinguishes between them. My school uses RWI and p is a pirate, b is a boot and d is a dinosaur). There's no point him trying to blend a word if he doesn't securely know one sound in it.

But yes, this is a perfectly normal phase and nothing to worry about!

My five year old is exactly the same. It can be quite frustrating but I try my best to keep my cool. Following for tips.

Thank you.

No he can't when I did it orally but I'm not sure how much is a can't blend vs can't focus to listen.

Will keep practicing. I have a severely dyslexic older one so it is hard not to worry about how tricky it is to catch up once behind

Play lots of environmental listening games to get him confident at distinguishing sounds.

When you are doing daily tasks, play blending and segmenting games then. “Can you find your /b/ /a/ /g/?” Then race to find it. “Oooh I’ve lost my /p/ /e/ /n/!”

What about trying rhyming syllables instead? So ´pen’ ´hen’ ´ten’ ´men’. So he’ll learn that the letter ´p’ goes with the /p/ sound but doesn’t have to blend.

He might find it easier if you begin with words starting with sounds you can extend without changing the sound. So sat and mat and fat rather than bat cat or pat and men not pen, den or ten.
I also suggest blending through the word building it as you go ... /m/ /m+e/ = me ..me + n = men. +a = sa ...sa + t = sat etc.
Sounds Write produces a great app (sadly only for iPads ) and the first units were free
They also produce a free online lesson for parents https://www.udemy.com/course/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/ which is excellent.

On youtube there's a video called something like 'blending slide' it uses a picture of a slide to help blend the words together.
I showed my daughter the video and printed the same slide and had her do what they were doing in the video and she very quickly got it!

I would also start by blending word with two sounds before moving on to three sounds e.g pea, bee, shoe, car, boy, pie etc.
You could print out some pictures of two phoneme words and use them to play games e.g. put them on the floor and say ‘can you jump on the b-ee?’ (or throw a beanbag/roll a toy car).