Training in blending

Description

• The child may identify individual letter-sounds but cannot put the sounds together to form words.
• Children who have difficulties in this area are not able to read words correctly.

Blending is a skill that requires sounding out letters and putting them together in order to read words or syllables. The child has to know the letter-sounds well in order to blend them into words. This is an essential skill that needs a lot of practice.

Material

Models of letters made of plastic, cardboard, clay and or any other material that may be available.

Blending

Teach children to blend letter-sounds into words. Begin with short words that follow regular spelling. Start by identifying one letter-sound.
Example: /m/-ilk. /s/-at.

Make rhyming words ending –ag, -at, -ad. Then ask the child to put different consonants at the beginning to make different words.
Example: Select the word family e.g. –at, give the sound /k/, let the child add –at and ask what word it makes (Making the word “cat”)

Work gradually towards blending the letter-sounds in simple words. For instance, /s/-/a/-/t/.
Example: Once the children are comfortable listening for individual letter-sounds, teach them to break up words into small units. For example, the word SAD: /s/-/a/-/d/.

Reading words

Matching games: In this activity the child matches pictures with their corresponding words.
Example: The teacher displays some pictures with some words, and then asks the child to match the picture with the appropriate word.

Play games that use everyday words. For example, going shopping, preparing food, or daily cleaning.
Example: Make a list of things you can buy for the home (e.g., bread, milk, sugar, soap etc.); give the list to the child and ask him or her to get the items from a “shop corner” in the classroom, with imitations of these things. Or another pupil can be the ‘shopkeeper’ who is giving the items to the one who is reading the list.

Make word families such as –ag, -at, -ad. Then ask the child to put consonants at the beginning to make different words.
Example: write the letters –at. Ask the children to put initial letter to make different words. S-at: sat, P-at: pat, R-at: rat.

Encourage children to read words in the environment (e.g., labels, instructions, road signs).
Example: STOP; CLASS; DESK; BOARD