[Minnie716]

Hi! There is always such great advice on this forum. I need some help with a student. She turned 6 in September so she’s older for her grade. She has major major speech issues which is why I think she is struggling. She is the only one left in my class that can’t sound out CVC words. She can give me the sounds and I actually tell her to sing out the sounds so they blend more easily. It’s like she can’t hear the word in her head after she sounds it out. For example, I was trying to get her to sing out the word “dip.” For the life of her, she couldn’t read it. She would sing it out and then say “sib” or some nonsense word. We’ve done sound boxes to help her break up a word I give her. I’ve given her a rubber band and had her stretch out words that I give her. I’ve sounded out words with her so she can hear me as she does it. I model how to sound (sing) out words everyday. She still struggles. Our books are getting harder. She is awesome with everything else except sounding out words. I’m really concerned. I’m hoping it’ll click for her.

Any other ideas?

[Sbkangas5]

Time to take a big step back in phonemic awareness. Can she blend compound words? Syllables? Onset and rime? All of those need to be in place before expecting her to blend cvc words. Speech issues usually don't affect phonemic awareness.

Also, segmenting the words is a totally different skill. Is she able to do that? I couldn't tell by your explanation.

[Minnie716]

She can segment words sometimes. But only words with three sounds. Our curriculum moves so fast. They expect them to start sounding out words in the fifth week of school. It does some onsets and rimes but not much. It doesn’t go over blending compound words. We did it a little bit at the very beginning of the year but the curriculum pushes sounding out words so early.

I think I will start at square one and have her blend compound words first like you mentioned. Then move to onsets and rimes. Our old curriculum did that very thoroughly and they weren’t expected to read until late January.

It’s hard because the curriculum expects them to be reading right now.

I wish I had more time with her. We have shorter days because the teachers have to teach the online students after school.

I think I moved too fast for her. I’ll slow it down. Thanks!

[Minnie716]

Ugh. Now I’m feelin the guilt. I should’ve slowed down for her. I just kept telling myself “she’ll get it.” And all that time, I could’ve been working on beginning phonemic awareness with her.

[hikinghiker]

I say take a step back. Blend two sound words with her and play phonemic awareness games. Start really really slowly. Spend a day or two just blending words like ap, ad, at, as, am, etc. Then add another sound. cap, sad, etc. Then repeat for all the vowel sounds. GO back to two sounds when she's struggling.

I also have a few students who can't blend CVC words yet. Granted, my curriculum is really really slow. We've only introduced 14 letter sounds so far. This year is crazy and we have a fraction of the amount of time we usually have, assuming you're distance learning. Kids simply won't know as much as they do in a normal year when we spend 6-7 hours a day with them.

[NoMorePencils]

This book was my bible when I was teaching kindergarten. It totally takes you back to the very beginning and introduces phonemic awareness step-by-step. It is highly successful.
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children

[Sbkangas5]

Ugh. Now I’m feelin the guilt. I should’ve slowed down for her.

Don't feel the guilt! It happens, and we are all doing our best. Unfortunately most kindergarten curriculum is completely inappropriate developmentally and skips over some of the most important pieces of learning to read.

If you are able, I HIGHLY recommend looking into Heggerty phonemic awareness. It is terrific and very easy to use.