Where to Go From Here - Help

[sonya_post]

I have a 17 month old and we've been using LR since October this year. Prior to LR we started PP presentations when he was 10 months old. We've been signing since he was 6 months. He said his first words at 9 months. Started signing right around a year. At 15 months his speech just took off. We quit teaching new signs around that time. We rarely use signs anymore as he can repeat nearly anything. In the last couple weeks his reading ability has soared. He has a reading vocabulary of nearly 250 words. What he can't say he signs. Last week I made a basic LR file with one letter on each frame. I went through it maybe 6 times and said "a - aahh, b - buh, c - kuh" etc. He knows all of the letters and sounds. He can count 1-20 forward and backward. He has shapes and colors down. Both recognizing the object and reading the word. It seems that I only have to show him something 3-4 times and he retains the information.

My question is this: LR is not introducing couplets at this time. Should I be making my own files with words he knows? Or, should I introduce the Flesch exercises at this point? (That will mean I have to finish the files I started before the new LR comes out  >  ) However, it seems so early how can a 17 month old understand phonics? Maybe he doesn't have to. He just has to hear me put the words together using the sounds he knows.

Any thoughts? Help? Thanks.

Sonya

[queriquita]

maybe this is anti-doman, but with joey i started playing a phonics game where i would ask him things like 'what's the first letter?'  always always amazed when he answered.  i try to only do it when i think he's being receptive and he seems to like it. of course, it's followed by a lot of praise afterwards.  maybe instead of asking him at this age, you could just tell him.  like, if he wants a mango, you could say, 'm- m- mmmmango  mango starts with m m- m- mango'  we sign quite a bit though, so it was great adding the letters.  it's so cute to watch him trying to get his fingers to make the right shapes too.
best of luck!

[DadDude]

Good job!

Well, I can't speak from experience yet myself (I can't tell whether my 15-month-old has any phonics ability because he doesn't speak well enough yet) but Titzer has declared to me that he has witnessed many children under the age of two who had picked up phonics rules just by viewing YBCR.  Of course, he's not unbiased, but it's interesting anyway.  Some people on this forum, too, will tell you that their children were able to decode new words phonetically by 18 months or something.  Mine didn't start any of that until 22 months and he's doing great now--so I don't think there's any big rush.  I'll bet yours will start reading phonetically within the next few months.  Do try Reading Bear with him!

You know that ReadingBear.org is the best way to learn Flesch word lists, right?   

[Tanikit]

The first blending exercise I did with my toddler was to lay a few two letter words (and I included the word ash as she knew the sh sound) on the ground and then say: "fetch me a - t ... at" and she did. She was less then 2 years old at the time. So you can try teaching phonics though I would probably just start blending and do everything for your child - do not expect a response.

And yes if your child knows 250 words then definitely start couplets and also make sure your child knows to read left to right when you start this. At this age you could possibly also start trying to decrease the font size gradually as some children do battle with the jump from large font words to the small font in books.

It sounds like you have done a great job.

[MamaOfWill]

Wow, you guys are doing so great!! You are an inspiration to me, I'm doing all the same things with my 1 year old and can only hope to have the same results.

On signing:  I've read teaching signs to three year old who can allready speak something like 3000 words, can still benefit from learning signs.  Why stop learning new signs?

My personal answer to your question:  Where to go from here,  how about something new, you mentioned counting, colours etc.  How about reading music, or learning country names (we've got a big blow up globe for baba and we point out and name contries and capitals on it.) 

But still, you're doing brilliantly as it is.

[sonya_post]

Thank you all for the encouragement and advice.

@ Daddude - 

We are not in a hurry, however, I am trying to stay a couple steps ahead of him. I assume this is part of Doman method. Compared to my friends children who signed, he was a late bloomer. Some of them were signing at 9 and 10 months old. I think we have hit a tipping point recently and I can't keep up with him. He begs me to "read" which is his word for LR. And if I tell him we are done his next word is "book". I have one of my daycare kids using Reading Bear. He loves it. At 4, he is making slow but steady progress. He resists reading so I try not to make a big deal of it.  He will use Reading Bear but tends to go over the same lessons. I don't make a big deal of this either or he'll quit. My 17 month old will watch Reading Bear but it doesn't hold his attention. I'm not sure why. In the last few weeks he has been asking for word flash files the most. We go through them very quickly and he'll say "again". That is how we learned to count, say the ABCs with sounds and we're working on the list of true sight words - not the dulche word list. I'll keep trying it. I'm wondering if it is a stage or just a difference in learning preferences.

@ Tanikit - Have you used the Flesch exercises? It doesn't have to be those just a phonics words list. I am wondering if I can just teach blends the same way I have been using LR and flashing them, then using foam letters or Leap Frog fridge magnets to supplement.  The LR phonics does not encourage left to right reading as the phonics families are based on word endings so the child is looking to the end of the word first.  How will I know at this age if he is reading left to right? He is very vocal about what he knows and generally finds testing to be a chance to show off. However, right now he uses 3 couplets - "I do", "This Mine", "My Daddy". I've tried to get him to use more but he repeats only the last word of the 2. I will reduce the font and add couplets to the LR files we are already using.

@ MamaOfWill we stopped learning and using signs because my son stopped using them. When he learned to speak he just quit. He'll use please and thank you and elephant, whale, giraffe, rhinoceros, and other words he can't pronounce, but he just lost interest. I don't push it.  We are using SoftMozart so he has learned solfege and the signs for that but all the kids learned the solfege signs. He's leaning to pick out keys on the keyboard. I have considered doing other things like country names, states, etc. I've decided to learn more about things he will see everyday. Plants and animals native to our area. Identifying trees and flowers, things like that. We are basically naming everything we come into contact with. But again, I am struggling to keep up. He is learning faster than I can create material.

Thanks all, I have to say that when I watched video's of children reading at 18 and 2 years I thought "well, I'm sure those are gifted kids who would have been able to do that anyway." I didn't think this would happen even when he recognized and said his first word. But I have been working with a Down Syndrome child who is 3. When she enters kindergarten 2 1/2 years from now, she will be way ahead of her peers. I am so grateful to have found early education. As a homeschooling mom of a 16 year old, this has removed much of the pain of the early years. It is so much better to do this with an excited toddler rather and a willful 7 year old.

Sonya

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Both of my kiddos learned their basic letter sounds by about 14-15 months, they understood phonics and were sounding out new words by 19 months. With my daughter, I encouraged her to sound out each syllable and reinforced with LR phonics lessons and flesch cards. With my son, I never needed to go through all that, he just did it because I exposed him earlier. Now, he'll do it for fun (sound out small words, but in the beginning he just read them naturally. However, I never tried to teach my kids complex rules like silent E by explaining them, I only demonstrated them. For example, first showing kit then kite, bit then bite, not then note, etc. If you are already reinforcing left to right with all other words/books, I probably wouldn't worry too much about the very brief LR Phonics lessons being shown as a "whole word" (actually, can you turn on the arrow for this to underline the words quickly?). Or, you can print them off or set them to manual forward and read them slowly while pointing.

I would definitely introduce couplets using words he already knows, but still continue using the daily LR curriculum because it's such an amazing way to grow your child's vocabulary and background knowledge. You can play the couplet files in LR from the advanced play screen, 'm sure you're already aware of this but it might be helpful to someone else reading this post.

[sonya_post]

I thought I'd just put in an update about my son Philip - now 18 months, especially after reading Daddude's update of E. and in light of things people posted on this thread. I hope this will be an encouragement.

For various reasons, our lives have been very hectic the last couple weeks so I haven't posted much. Some things have just fallen by the wayside. However, Dr. Titzer was correct and so are others who have posted on here. Philip is sounding out words. I am wondering if 18-20 months is about the age that a child can just make those connections. That age seems to be consistent with children who started learning to read well before a year old.

We have something called flipping phonics, which is very similar to the BK pattern phonics flip chart. I will sound out each individual phonogram, slowly and clearly, and then he will put it together. He loves doing it. My 4 year old daycare boy, who fights reading lessons, has found this to be a great motivator. If he struggles to sound out a word, I will say, "Well, let's ask Philip." Suddenly he can pronounce it. The phonics chart is wonderful because you can easily change words by putting in a new vowel or changing the beginning or ending sound. The words do not even have to be words. The point is the practice of putting together the sounds.

to help facilitate this, I made LR files of the 70 phonograms - with 15 or so phonograms in each file. Each phonogram is listed separately with an example of a few words that use it such as: "ow as in cow, how and now". We do a file for 3 days or so and move on. I cycle back through them once we've finished all of them. This is working for us quite well. I continue to use the LR curriculum. I am wondering if the current phonogram lessons are not much different than say learning the ABC's and their sounds. "ah as in apple" and "oo as in moose". He recognizes the different phonograms and he doesn't seem to have trouble blending the sounds together. I hope this will eliminate the need for extensive phonetics instruction until he is learning to spell.

I will post these files as soon as I add the audio. 

   

[Tanikit]

It will be interesting to see how he does further - it is great that he knows how to blend so early as blending can be quite a step to take and some children take a while to get it- yours seems to have picked it up without a problem. I am wondering how much spelling we will have to teach these early readers - maybe it will also depend on individual differences in the children. My own DD can certainly spell simple phonetic words already ( to test it one day I played Wolfie wolfie what is the time? with her only asking wolfie wolfie how do you spell ---? and she got them right every time though I only tested cvc words for starters. I have alphabet, digraph and long vowel flashcards and will probably use those as "tiles" to try a spelling game and see how she does - she has asked for help with spelling things she wants to look up on google (I have to keep a close eye on her computer use now) and if it is a phonogram she has not yet covered I quickly teach it to her.

[pfergie]

Hi all,

Been reading all your posts and it is great to see how far and quickly all your kids are progressing with phonics and reading-we have a long way to go! Would be great to hear how you's all started out with LR as that's where we are in our first week with LR deluxe! Also when to introduce the books and flip charts if anyone has these resources?

[sonya_post]

pfergie,

WeIcome to Brillkids!  started my child with Little Reader basic back in October. Before that we were using powerpoint presentations. LR is so much easier to use. I spend more time with my child and much less time creating content. Though I still do some of that. By the time were started with LR  my son was already recognizing about 75 words he was 14 months old at the time. In the beginning I pretty much stuck with the lessons. Once we worked through all the powerpoints I'd made we started using other user created content. In the last month we started with phonics and using the flip chart.

Tanikit and TeachingMyToddlers will be great resources on what to do when. We are just a few steps ahead of you. How old is your child?

Sonya

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