Acquiring 44 Sounds

Most ABC books teach 26 letters with 26 sounds, called a letter-to-sound format. In these books you will read something like, "A is for apple." In this instance the letter sound of 'a' does not match the beginning sound of "apple." I guess they assume that somehow the minds of little children will f

Imagine a group of children sitting quietly at their desks while the teacher draws the letter 'a' on the board. Then she turns to her class and says, "This is the letter 'a' and it says 'a ' (short 'a' sound). 'A' is for apple." The children, looking at the squiggly line for the letter 'a,' may t

Did you know that young children hear sounds in languages (called phonemes) more clearly than adults? It's true. As children listen to and interact with those around them, they become familiar with the specific sounds of English. And when they view picture books with those abstract squiggly lines