There's lots more information about how children build phonological awareness across the Tiny Happy People website. Phonological awareness is how teachers and speech and language therapists might describe your child's ability to recognise different word sounds, which is helpful when they start school and learn to read. Spot the odd one outĬhallenge your little one to pick out the item with a name that doesn't rhyme. Set your little one a challenge to find items from around the house beginning with the same letter sound. Introduce more items with more different letters as you go. See if your child can sort them into the correct groups. For example, a ball, a bell, a book and a toy car, a carrot and a crayon. Try gathering a selection of items from around the house in groups starting with different letter sounds. There are lots more activities on the Tiny Happy People site that are designed to help with children's phonics learning. Other games to help with phonics learning Why not switch things up? As well as word sounds, you could use colours, like 'someone wearing yellow', or other characteristics like 'something with a beak'. Switch whose turn it is - let your child pick an object and have guesses yourself. If they get it right, offer lots of praise.

So for example, 'I spy with my little eye, something beginning with sss' (S).īy using the sound as opposed to the name, you're helping your little one to spot the word sound, which is helpful when it comes to learning to read.Ĭheck out the Alphablocks guide to phonics for a introduction to all the different letter sounds and a bit more information about how to use them. Say 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with.' saying the sound that the object's name begins with, not the letter's name. Take turns with one another to pick an item you can see around you.

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