Souns promotes having the fundamental tools of print in place when children are old enough to say, “I want to read!”
This 14 month old will be armed well when that time comes.
Tag Archives: letter-sounds
A Bowl Of Souns
A typical moment in the Souns Early Learning Workshops! One mom wrote her story:
“My daughter was born on August 2011. She was introduced to Souns at our library through a project of the local Rotary Club. We attended on 2 occasions; on January 2013 and March 2013. Specifically, we [were intoduced to] the Souns letter /o/. Since we did not own a set of Souns, I used one of her toys shaped like an o to reference the /o/ sound.
At the end of March 2013, my child pointed to an /o/ on her placemat at dinner and exclaimed, ” Ah!”
[Our family] started the every other Friday Souns Early Literacy Workshops at Counterpane Montessori school on August 2013 where our [daugter] was introduced to m, s and t. My mother and her husband purchased a set of Souns for my daughter on that day. Within a few weeks, my 2 year old daughter brought me her bowl of Souns. She held up her m, o, s and t and said,” mm, ah, ss, and tih!” We celebrated and she was introduced to /p/ and /e/.”
Playing to learn works! The video below is where the little one in the story above will likely be in a year. She is 3 years 2 months in this video. Importantly, there has been NO pressure to “learn to read” or “school” to compromise the joy of learning through play.
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A Jewel In Colorado!
This lovely woman, Della Palacios, is now living in Boulder, Colorado. One of her offerings is Souns and Rhymes classes for little people. Get to know this remarkable talent. I celebrate that she is a Souns trainer as well!
Souns and Rhymes
The design of this class is to establish a foundation so firm that no holes will ever appear in fundamental literacy skills. It’s a simple brilliance that makes it so profound. Souns® and Rhymes classes consist of two core elements: letter sounds and nursery rhymes. Parents interact with children as language and literacy is brought to life.
I used Souns with my children and taught them nursery rhymes, but it was not until they were three and four years old. Now, I am having the pleasure of watching one-year old babes learn nursery rhymes and letter sounds. Two weeks ago, a 16 month-old said “row row row” in eager anticipation of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Another 17-month old pointed out the “mmm” when asked on the poster displaying the rhyme “mary had a little lamb.” She connected the label of the Souns symbol, /mmm/, to the print on the poster.
Simple is best. Teach children nursery rhymes. Teach children letter sounds with lower case letters first. Children will read.
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Paisley’s Souns
“She loves her Souns! We are doing some extended travel [and mail is an issue]. It would have been a lot easier to just order the whole set to begin with, but we had never seen them in person or known anybody to use them, so we didn’t know if we would even like them or use them.She’s learning so quickly. I had no idea kids could learn this stuff so early! Sometimes we talk about Souns as we are reading stories (/m/ /o/ /m/, or /p/ /e/ /t/, especially) and she just soaks it all up.
That reminds me of one other thing–when I introduced /p/ and /e/, it was as if Paisley already knew them, and was glad to finally know what they were. She was delighted! (Especially with her /p/.) I’ve been thinking about it, and I think Souns are especially good for her because she talks so much, and since she is still little, when she verbalizes different words her speech is obviously not as clear as an adult’s. She sometimes thinks it is funny that words in English sound alike. For example, she is always asking me what things are, and one thing she asked about recently was the sheet on her bed. So I told her, “Sheet. That’s called a sheet.” She was really surprised and amused by that. “BAAA!”–she grinned–“Sheep!” OH! Yes, those words sound very similar, don’t they. I explained it to her and sounded the words out clearly and slowly…but that is fairly typical. Souns make it easier for me to help her differentiate between very similar words because they give us a shared frame of reference and they help separate sounds that are related to one another but different. I think that will continue to be the case when we are able introduce more.
She loves “reading” (just flipping through pages of her books, mostly silently), and being read to, and this past week I offered her a pen and paper and she finally loves to scribble…so it will be very interesting to see how Souns continue to shape her learning. We’re having a lot of fun with this!”
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“The Brain Is Never NOT Learning!”
Observation of a very young child shows an endless stream of exploration: input, input, input to a developing brain. Watch the eyes followed by the hands followed by the mouth. A spot on the rug is intensely explored. A smooth painted geometric shape is examined, moved from hand to hand and to the mouth until interest is diverted to another child doing something nearby. All eyes, hands, feet, mouth, ears feeding the brain by engagement with the environment, examining every detail with attention rarely matched in later years.
Look at the toys in this morning visit. All designed for little hands and minds to explore: geometric shapes and letter shapes; stacking toys and building toys. “This is an /o/.” “That is a rectangle.” “Thank you for the red ball.” Simple comments, short, gentle, and to the point leaves space for the child’s mind to consider the information in their own time.
It is very interesting to watch creative little hands try to stack and sort in a very personal way. It is in our patient watching that we are able to see the learning happen. We must be still and not interrupt the direction of the play except to keep children safe. A surprise presents itself in every visit if we observe and let the exploration happen. “The brain is never not learning!” I love those words of Patricia E. Wolfe in Mind Matters.
“Yes, little one…that is the letter for /i/!” They find so much confidence in just KNOWING!
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Head Start Meets Rotary
A visit to San Juan for Rotary District 7000’s Foundation Seminar highlighted beautiful people doing remarkable things for children in Puerto Rico! There was a reveiw of literacy projects based on the Souns program involving Rotary Districts 7000, 6990, and 6900. This included one Matching Grant recently completed, the beginning of a second Matching Grant, and a plan for a Global Grant. Totally inspiring!
Visiting Head Start sites in the project demonstrated the power of the young preschool mind when given tools of print through engaging hands-on activities that build letter-sound knowledge. So far, the Rotary literacy project has provided Souns materials to 135 classrooms in San Juan and, through a second grant, will extend materials to ALL the Head Start classrooms in the San Juan Municipality program within the year. With site visits several times each year, we are able to see the progress, hear about the progress, and move forward with teacher training.
This August visit, just a few days into the school year, confirmed children came back to school with retention of letter-sound knowledge (and that new children were quick to pick up the information). Given the gift of a Souns writing mat, the group of learners were able to hear a word and build that word by listening to the sounds in the word. This is only possible if the child is confident with letter-sound knowledge. What a positive environment and developmentally appropriate materials can do for early literacy! Working as a team, the children built four words. The last word, feo, presented a surprise, as a new child was quietly persistent as she kept pointing to the second letter – e (eh) – when the others were pondering the sound. It was a very special moment for everyone…particularly that little girl who knew she knew!.
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Souns FUN = Intentional Learning!
Parents and children learning together is the best! Our Early Literacy Workshop today was a great example. Getting the hands into the building of letter-sound knowledge with finger paints – little hands and big hands. No letter-names are found in our environment until after the child has begun sounding out simple phonetic words comfortably, which usually happens between three to four years of age for typically developing children who have followed this very informal program. One little one – not yet two years – loves her Souns and knows ten of her letter-sound associations already. I smiled at her and quietly enticed, “You think you are ready for a new sound?” She responded with a spontaneous and confident smile, “Yes!” I introduced /u/ to her and she shared it with her dad. What fun is this!!! I told her dad, “I can’t wait for you to see what three looks like for your child!”
Another member of the group is being helped to learn letter-sounds by his older sibling. They each are having fun “teaching” mom letter-sounds. Moms can be the most inspiring students for their children.
Another mom shared that her child – the youngest in the group – seemed to learn the first four sounds slowly, but the fifth sound was learned the same day it was introduced. This is what we see quite often. Once the child has created the “hook” for letter-sound associations with the first four Souns symbols, the rest snap right into place. Those little minds are amazing, particularly if play and child-time are taken seriously.
It was a great day for all!
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FUN (with Souns Cookies), Anyone?
Another great gathering with Souns families! Measurable progress is being made and critical learning for us in how to best prepare parents to implement the Souns program in the home. Watching children explore and learn letter-sound associations through play informs one of more natural paths to writing and reading.
One of the parents surprised us with a plate of homemade /o/m/s/t/ cookies. The children eagerly chose a sound, “I have an /o/,” giggling as they ate. What a fun way to engage children with letter-sounds.
Another family who could not attend this morning’s workshop sent us images or their child working with Souns at home. She spent the morning lining up her many stuffed animals to teach them Souns. It is interesting that this is an activity often engaged in by young Souns kids.
We viewed a video on music and movement for infants and toddlers, readying for a workshop where we will introduce simple creative ways to include music and movement into a child’s world.
Little animals all lined up for their Souns lesson! Guess who is doing the learning?
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Through The Hearts Of Teachers
Teaching the teacher (parent or caregiver) about Souns initially takes about two hours. The Souns program – focusing only on letter-sound associations – is the most natural, developmentally appropriate route to reading for the young child. Teachers love this simple, logical, effective tool. After the introduction of the program, we observe the teacher teaching the children (below).
The result, often in three to four months of learning letter-sound associations, is the building of words (below). This “writing” by listening to sounds in words lasts for several weeks or a month. Taking the puzzle of a spoken word apart, building it with symbols is fun! This understanding of the structure of words leads to a seamless step into sounding out printed phonetic words.
Soon, the magic of decoding – sounding out words – appears spontaneously in the classroom….one little person at a time. The five-year-old in the image below is reading a sentence I wrote. She sought us out to share something she had read in the classroom. I wanted fresh material for her, so I created a short phonetic sentence, which she read with no hesitation.
Are we making a difference in South Africa? Absolutely! Rotarian volunteers teach the teachers in the implementation of a program that is provided by a Rotary Global Grant. In a country with 11 official languages, Souns focuses ONLY on letter-sounds, most of which are the same across all the languages. Letter-sound associations are the most direct link to writing and reading. These children will walk a better path toward success in school; they will read!
“Thank you!” to The Rotary Foundation for your support of this Global Grant 25244 literacy project initiated by the Rotary Club of Pretoria East in Rotary District 9400 and the Rotary Club of Peachtree City in Rotary District 6900.
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One Preschool – One School Year!
Souns® for Literacy in the GET-SET Preschool in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
This graph – in percents – represents letter-sound knowledge for learners (N=34) in the GET SET preschool classroom, comparing data collected at the beginning of the school year and at the conclusion of the school year. Consider the future step into kindergarten for these children.
While in a separate graph, it is important to mention that the majority of the learners knew 6 digraphs, and could sound out 9 phonetic words. It is awe inspiring to see the potential awaiting classrooms when children are supported and learning is fun. The focus on letter-sound associations in exclusion of letter-name associations (until decoding begins) clearly makes a difference in building young writers and readers.The Souns program is evidence based and it works! Thank you, Rotarians, for the gift of Souns! Thank you teachers and volunteers of GET SET for ensuring that our c h i l d r e n w i l l r e a d !
Souns Talk Weblog 