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Every child learning to read has to establish between individual sounds and symbols. This is best mediated through specific CLUEWORDS which give a picture to associate with the sound. Hence "A for Apple": we have the letter name (symbol); the a sound at the beginning of "apple", and of course the associated picture of the apple. Understanding of the sound/symbol relationship is not complete without this "triangle", and it can cause problems if the letter name is not taught from the start.
The following sequence provides one framework for the effective teaching of this triangle, particularly for dyslexic children who often have significant difficulties in this area.
Resources needed for each sound are a LETTER CARD and a PICTURE CARD; for example a and an Apple picture.
A useful set of resources at this stage is the FUNICS LETTER SOUNDS AND NAMES download, or of course you can make your own. In each case, you use the PROMPT on the left to elicit the RESPONSE on the right from the learner.
Note: only lower case letters should be used at this stage. Once they are established, move onto upper case, when the upper to lower case lotto set (in the Funics Letter Sounds and Names set) can be used
| PROMPT | Use card? Yes/no. | RESPONSE |
| Letter card | y | Letter name (teach this at the outset). |
| Picture card | y | Initial sound. |
| Letter name | n | Picture word, initial sound |
| Picture card | y | Picture word, initial sound |
| Initial sound | n | Picture word letter name |
| Initial sound | n | Repeat sound, letter name |
| Picture word | n | initial sound, letter name. |
| Initial sound | n | repeat sound, letter name, write letter in sand |
| Write letter in the air, on a surface, in sand or (make it a game: what letter am I writing?) on the learner's back. | n | Picture word, initial sound, letter name.
At this stage the triangle is complete. |
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