Playing with Word Sounds: Stretch and Shorten

By: Reading Rockets (2009)

When beginning readers sound out words, they slowly say each sound in a word (c–a–t), and then say the sounds quickly together to "read" the word (cat). In reading, teachers often refer to this as blending. Blending (combining sounds) and segmenting (separating sounds) are phonological awareness skills that are necessary for learning to read.

Developing your child's phonological awareness is an important part of developing your child as a reader. Many research studies indicate that kids who have weak phonological awareness also have weak reading skills.

There are lots of ways families can work to develop a child's phonological skills. Most activities require no paper or pencil, which makes them perfect for those times when you're stuck waiting for a table in a restaurant or at the doctor's office. All you need is a little bit of silliness and a willingness to play with sounds.

Ask your child to listen as you stretch out sounds in words. Have your child say the word at regular speed. Start with short two-sound words, and work your way up to longer words. Try to keep the atmosphere fun and game like. If a certain word is too difficult, try using a word with fewer sounds. Once your child has gotten some practice saying the word at regular speed, switch roles. Have your child say a word slowly, stretching out each sound, and you guess what word is being said.

Here are some words to stretch and shorten:

2 sounds

at (a–t)
up (u–p)
it (i–t)
off (o–f)

3 sounds

map (m–a–p)
lip(l–i–p)
night (n–i–t)
van (v–a–n)

4 sounds

mint (m–i–n–t)
club (k–l–u–b)
speak (s–p–e–k)
groan (g–r–o–n)

5 sounds

stroke (s–t–r–o–k)
stream (s–t–r–e–m)
frost (f–r–o–s–t)
plant (p–l–a–n–t)

Reading On The Go    

Here are some ideas that you can use whenever you have a few spare minutes (e.g. waiting in line, waiting for an appointment, riding in the car) to develop your child’s reading ability.

• Find the letters of the alphabet as you shop in the grocery store.
• Play “I Spy” for letters using billboards, signs etc., I spy an “a”.
• Find objects that begin with each letter of the alphabet.
• Think of as many items as possible that begin with a certain letter.
• Find a magazine picture and ask your child to tell a short story about it.
• Practice rhyming words (e.g. sat, rat, cat, chat).
• Work on synonyms (e.g. fast/rapid, small/tiny).
• Work on antonyms (e.g. tall/short, up/down).
• Have your child spell some of the items you could buy at a grocery store.
• Practice short vowel sounds (e.g. mop, pen, milk).
• Practice long vowel sounds (e.g. meat, eraser, steak).
• Practice contractions (e.g. cannot-can’t, will not-won’t, I will-I’ll).
• Practice syllabication. You say a word then have your child say the number of syllables in that word (e.g. donut-2).
• Play “I Spy” for objects that begin with specific sounds or letters (e.g. something beginning with /d/ - dog).
• Find the letters of the alphabet in the specific shapes of ordinary things (e.g. on a handrail).
• Practice listening comprehension by describing an object for your child to guess what it is.
• Use the letters of the alphabet and play “I’m packing my bag” (e.g.”I’m packing an ‘apple’ in my bag”. “I’m packing a ‘ball’ in my bag”.).
• Take a common word and see how many different sentences your child can make using this word (adding suffixes is acceptable).
• Think of a category and then have your child think of as many items as possible that would fit in the category (e.g. animals, fruits, games, zoo animals).
• Plan a dinner and see how many items you would have at your dinner that begin with a certain letter (e.g. “L”: lettuce, lasagna, limes, lemonade, lamb, licorice, lobster, lollipops).
• Play “odd one out”: think of three items (two belong together, the other is odd one out). Your child needs to say which one is odd one out and why (e.g. banana, desk, orange, “desk” because it is not a fruit; four, one, book, “book” because it is not a number).

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