>asa: monstrs eet uthr monmstrs.

me: i am not a monster. today i am a butterfly.

asa: im a rabt.

me: i am a bird today. what are you?

asa: im a bee.

(Several days went by.)

asa: im a brd tooda.

>I haven’t had a chance to try some of your suggestions yet, but I have been using the Souns letters during play again lately. My daughter remembers the first 7 and I am going to introduce the next letter soon. I’ll keep you posted on her progress.

I am interested to see if she will be an above average reader. She also shows more interest in books than my son, and she crawled for 6 months before she walked. They say there is a connection between kids who crawl for a long time and higher reading levels. Between her crawling, interest in books and Souns, I am guessing she will be a great reader!
J

>Thank you so much for writing in with your questions. We really appreciate any feedback from parents and your questions are familiar ones. We are so happy that you are doing this with your daughter and are so proactive.

There are a couple of things that we thought of with your current situation. First of all, you have a very common situation of having an older sibling learning letter names at school. We get that question quite frequently. While letter names are inescapable, it is really your emphasis on the sounds that will draw your daughter back to the importance of them. You can talk to your son about the importance of sounds in reading and that your daughter is too young to understand both right now. Ask him to talk about the sounds instead of the letters with her. Re-emphasizing the sounds when he or she states the letter name will reinforce it. For example, if either see a letter and say it’s name, such as a “M”, you can respond, “Yes, that’s mmmm”.

The other thing you mentioned was that she was having trouble producing the /e/ and /’i/ differently. While your daughter may be producing the rest of the Souns she has learned, it isn’t necessary that she be able to articulate them correctly, no matter what her age or developmental level until she is beginning to decode outloud. For now, it is entirely about her comprehension and differentiation of the different letters and their sounds. If you place emphasis on her identifying (showing you the object that you named) rather than her naming it outloud, you should be able to redirect her to more success and therefore encourage her continued play with Souns.

It is normal that children’s interests will wane over time but if you continue to keep Souns in her life and environment, without it being a testing situation, and emphasize natural play situations, you will be able to continue reinforcing Souns. With my own children, if I feel like the interest is waning, I will sometimes just make sure the Souns got spilled and ask them to clean them up by stating, “Go get the sss under the chair” and “Can you bring the aahh to Mommy?” Even if she isn’t interested in Souns per se, she will always be interested in your attention. And, of course, sounds are everywhere. There are many opportunities to talk about the letter’s sounds when you see them on trucks on the road or napkins at a restaurant. Also, depending on your daughter’s level, you can play sound games in the car or wherever, asking, “what sounds do you hear in “pop” etc.. or “what else starts with ssss?”

>I purchased souns for my infant daughter when she was a few months old. She began making the sounds of the first letter almost immediately after introducing it (somewhere between 6 mos and 1 yr). I introduced a few more, and she said those as well. It was so amazing.

She had about 5 letter sounds down before the age of two. Funny thing is, she was speech delayed. Didn’t say Mommy until about two years old (Said Daddy a little earlier).

I have an older son in kindergarten, so my daughter is exposed to a lot of books and videos with letters. Due to this, she will sometimes say the name of the letter instead of the sound. It has also become increasingly difficult to teach her the new sounds. The e is hard for her to say…it sound like the i. The i sounds like the e. Should I skip these and continue with other letters?

Now that she is mobile (didn’t walk until almost 19 mos) and talking and able to play with a lot more stuff, she isn’t really interested in her souns letters as much. I have to catch her in the right mood. Do you have any tips to keep this going?
J

>asa: it snwd.

me: is it fun? did you play in it?

asa: i clmd a roc wl.

me: that is wonderful! tell me more.

asa: i clmd hi.

A few days later, Asa emailed again.

asa: sciz or gra.

me: hi asa! it is sunny. it is warm. is it cold at your house?

asa: it is nt cod.

>Recently, when Asa and I began emailing, I chose to write phonetically. I wondered about that decision and it has given me pause enough to consider the source for the best answer – the child. As young children imprint so quickly, and they count on us to tell them the truth – even if incrementally, I decided against that practice. I will write with the symbols he knows (lower case letters), but I will not spell the words incorrectly. Even if Asa needs help decoding what I write, the point is for him to see correctly spelled words. Correct spelling will evolve as he continues to explore writing phonetically (never being corrected, of course). Henceforth, you will see me struggling to stay simple as I try to keep up with this child’s eagerness to communicate. What a journey for both of us!

>My Daughter just updated our grandson Duncan’s website, and I thought you might like to see a particular paragraph. They have been working with the first 3 “souns.” I am excited about the possibilities your program holds for Duncan. Please see the paragraph below:

Duncan is having what we term a “smart baby” week. We are watching him make lots of new connections, which is exciting. For instance, he is beginning to understand imitation and turn taking. If we bang on his high chair tray or clap our hands a certain number of times, he’ll wait attentively, think for a moment, and then repeat the action, doing it the correct number of times most of the time. He’s also starting to understand the letters that he plays with as part of the “souns” program. If we hold up two letters and ask him to pick a specific one (i.e. “Duncan, get the mmmm”), he can do it most of the time. These are simple things, but they represent cognitive leaps forward for Duncan.

Please visit Duncan’s website at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/duncanlawrence

>I have the pleasure of having an email connection with “asa,” a Souns child in Oregon. Our messages are typically one to four words, phonetically written, and fun to read. The only assistance he gets is with some of my communication. I thank him and his parents for allowing me to share our exchanges. It opens quite a window of observation for expression in the world of very young children. One series of messages includes:

me: doo yoo hav a cat? tel mee if yoo doo.
asa: yyes
me: what is yoor cats name?
asa: hi bnd my cat is oden
me: is oden a gerl cat or a boy cat?
asa: hee is a bb
bi asa
me: what culer is hee?
asa: hee is gra

Several days went by without a message from Asa…then:

asa: thrmometr
me: is it cold ther? what dus yoor thermometer say?
asa: it sas s0mbodeez sik

And I smiled! He was saying he was sick in the thrmometr message! We miss SO much!

>Souns Tree
I just thought you’d appreciate the picture I attached of my 19 month old daughter sitting in front of our Christmas tree. Last night she thought it would be a good idea to decorate the tree with her Souns symbols. She was proud of her accomplishment. We are a little late at ordering our second set, but I did yesterday in hopes they will be here by Christmas so Santa can deliver her next sound. Anyway, my daughter knew her first three sounds months ago and has fun playing hide the sound. We also ask her to give us the /s/ and she goes right to the /s/ and gives it to us. She can even verbalize the sounds herself without any prompting. So, thank you for making Souns. We really enjoy them.