From the field SounsAfrica – 5 year old Grade R children beginning to sound out words with Souns! What a difference we are making. http://ow.ly/i/9zZk

SounsAfrica From the field What a day! We visited three preschools, evaluated students, reviewed good practice with teachers and volunteers, and assessed overall progress with the Souns program.

During this March visit to the schools in Knysna, we are focusing primarily on Grade R students, as they are in the first quarter of their school year and are readying for entering Grade 1 in January 2012. The Souns program prepares children with a solid base of letter-sound knowledge and a comfort with sounding out three letter phonetic words at the conclusion of Grade R. Such preparation will arm these children well for success in Grade 1. Our next evaluation of the work will be this September.

We are delighted with the progress we observed. Bright faces beaming with enthusiasm as they identify letter-sounds. Wide, gleeful eyes as they surprise themselves sounding out individual words we wrote with the Souns letters on the mat in front of them. Whether learning the letter-sound associations for Afrikaans, English, or Xhosa the preschoolers demonstrated great strides through the Souns program. The caregivers, volunteers, and mentors from Knysna Education Trust deserve kudos for their tireless efforts for these children and their integrity with this program.

One little boy was a lesson for us. He was amongst the oldest preschoolers; but, when identifying letter-sounds he was impulsive and made more mistakes than the others. I was concerned about his comfort sounding out words. WOW! I was so wrong. As each word was placed in front of the small group of children, he exploded with joy as he found he was able to sound out each word – correctly. His grin reached from ear to ear as he realized he could “read.” Such errors in judgment are too often because we don’t trust in the child….they are capable and they want so badly to succeed. What a miracle awaits in each one of them. What a lesson each one of them is for us. This has been such a promising day….and tomorrow awaits.

http://ow.ly/i/9zY9

There are no words to really explain the feeling of having a blind child softly, gently, but persistently ask for his /o/ and /m/ and /s/ back after the Souns materials were put away at the conclusion of one brief encounter of perhaps 20 minutes. He had learned the three letter-sound associations after just one introduction, would not give up the materials without resistance, and now wanted them back. How wonderful!

Our visit to the well known and beautifully established Prinshof School for the Blind in Pretoria, South Africa, was quite unbelievable for everyone – teacher, students, and Rotarians. We were there as a result of a literacy project funded by a Rotary Global Grant. Our purpose was to introduce the teacher of the preschool class to the Souns program. Souns was designed through consultation with Vincer Cotton of the Macon School of the Blind in Macon, Georgia. There is Braille on the face of each letter. However, this was the first opportunity we have had to train a teacher in the Souns program for a class of blind preschoolers. The teacher was tentative until she saw how immediately the children took to the materials. She was so excited to see associations being made so quickly. We were equally excited. The children were engaging with the materials in a natural, hands-on way – touching the Braille, exploring the shapes, manipulating the three letters introduced. One child who was identified as a non-talker verbalized the sound of each letter.

Unlike a group lesson for sighted children where a different sound of those being introduced can be given to each child, each blind child was given one of each of the sounds introduced during the lesson. After thoroughly handling the three letters individually, each child placed his or her /o/m/s on the floor in front of of him or her in random order and was asked to find the /o/ or the /m/ or the /s/. None of the six children in the group made an error in choice! One even jubilantly picked up one of the letters and announced its sound!

The world of teaching pivots on moments such as we had at Prinshof! Thank you RC Pretoria East (D9400), RC Peachtree City (D6900), RC’s Coweta-Fayette, East Cobb, and North Fulton (D6900) and the Rotary Foundation for such possibilities.

☆☼☆ATTENTION ☆☼☆ SOUNS FAMILIES…please take the time to fill out this survey and make a difference for early literacy! http://ow.ly/49XoR

Good morning to you terrific people. Head down, elbows up w work! SEE SOUNS RESOURCES – helpful in the EXTREME! http://ow.ly/48sq7

EARLY LITERACY LOOKS LIKE THIS! Having fun with letter sounds ONLY makes a profound difference for the young child…http://ow.ly/47W8n

WHAT DOES HAPPINESS LOOK LIKE? Check this out – http://ow.ly/47MiB

CAN YOU BELIEVE! http://ow.ly/3Z9GS Here is a video from a family whose little boy, Jack, started souns when he was just about 20 months. We had just begun the program with our Early Intervention team in Georgia and he was one of our 1st. He is now 6 years old.
He is in the County School system now and does get exposed to different sight word reading programs currently, but you can see on this video how he knows how to sound out phonetically. You can look at two other links on the Youtube to see where he started with Souns. He is amazing!

…..the simple demos today were awesome.  One head of department said to me “don’t be surprised if the children don’t respond because we speak zulu” – so I took out the souns and said is this “Oh” in zulu?…”yes”  Is this “mm” in zulu?  “yes”  Is this “ss” in zulu?  “yes”  Then I said “don’t be surprised if the children respond right away (with a little joke) and of course they did.  We had a good laugh and she was very enthusiastic after that. (written today by Kellie in Pretoria)

16 February 2011

Dear Robin and the Rotary Club of Pretoria East,

I can hardly believe how quickly the time has passed in 2011. As an NGO, the year commenced with a tremendous ‘bang’ along with exciting new projects that come with their own workload attached.  I must confess that I have been intending to contact you sooner, please forgive me.

Congratulations with the Global Grant that has allowed you to introduce the Souns Literacy Programme to the schools in and around Pretoria.  Since Brenda let me know that the Grant was approved, I have been overjoyed at the prospects of what Souns could possibly achieve in the Créches and ECD Centres who will be gifted this programme, because of what this means for the teachers and the children in your communities.

Witnessing the power of the programme in action since late 2009 and since meeting Brenda and listening to, and observing her share Souns and her passion for this simplistic, yet highly effective literacy programme has often rendered me speechless. Through proper training and a mentoring process, this programme allows children from 6 months of age to literally take hold of the symbols of their language and gain knowledge in bite-size chunks, thereby accrue permanent understanding of the letter sound and shape through interacting with them in a

non-threatening environment. Through solid sound knowledge, the possibilities are endless, and to this I bear witness.

The programme also allows teachers a tool that is easy to introduce and is user-friendly and it affords them an opportunity to spend one-on-one time with the children, allowing positive reinforcement and praise, this is something I hold very dear.

Through the Knysna Education Trust, we have introduced Souns to 23 ECD Centres incorporating just over 1100 children. Our communities’ languages include Afrikaans, Xhosa and English. Our first learners have now entered Grade 1 classrooms at Government schools and I am set to have appointments to meet with these teachers toward the end of March in order to dicuss the outcomes of the programme through observing those children who had access to the programme prior to 2011, and getting their feedback.

I have so much to share regarding Souns introduction, implementation and the process and progress. Please know that I am sold-out on this programme and support and endorse Souns for our children and the communities at large.

I do hope to share in the literacy and life-changing adventure that you are embarking on and I only wish that from the outset, all those involved will fully grasp the worth of the gift in their hands.  I wish you everything of the best for the launch on Saturday and wish that I could have been with you. I look forward to meeting you sometime in the future.

Yours sincerely

Annette Nelson

Educational Mentor