Segmenting Phonemes

What are phonemes?

The smallest unit of sound.
Children need to have good phonemic awareness skills are can separate spoken words into their individual sounds.
Like bag is /b/ /a/ /g/
shoe is /sh/ /ew/

• Listen and Say

You say, “Listen to this word: ‘mat’. Say the word with me. Now you say the word. The first sound in ‘mat’ is /m/. Say the first sound in ‘mat’ with me. Now you say the first sound in ‘mat’. The next sound in ‘mat’ is /a/. Say the next sound in ‘mat’ with me. Now you say the next sound in ‘mat’. The last sound in ‘mat’ is /t/. Say the last sound in ‘mat with me. Now you say the last sound in ‘mat’. You can use items to represent the sounds as a visual cue for your child.

Reithaug, D. (2002) Orchestrating success in reading, Stirling Head Enterprises, p. 137.
Rubber Band Stretch

• Count the sounds

Choose a word and say it to your child. Start with two-phoneme words. Have your child hold up fingers to show the number of sounds he/she hears (e.g., bee, /b/ /e/, 2 fingers).

Edmonton Public Schools (2008) Hands-on literacy, p. 45.
 

• Finger Tapping

On the opposite hand to the one used for writing (as this technique can also be used to spell words), teach your child to touch the thumb to the fingers with the palm facing the child (first pointer, then tall man, next ring finger, finally pinky). 

If there are more than four sounds, the other hand can carry on. This is used to count the number of phonemes in a word.

Wilson, B. (2004) Wilson reading system, Wilson Language Training Corp.
 

• A Tasty Game

Spread some peanut butter on to several celery sticks. Ask your child to say the sounds in a 2 or 3 sound word (e.g., am, bed, it). As your child says the individual sounds, he/she is to place a raisin into the peanut butter. After several words, enjoy the snack!