How To Teach Vowel Sounds To Your Toddler?

It is really a great experience to hear your little one speak out small words and eventually small sentences. It is, without any doubt, one of the greatest milestones. The next step is introducing them to the world of letters. And while most consonant sounds are quite easy for little ones to master, teaching Vowel sounds to your toddler can be an entirely different story. Teaching the vowel sound is more or less quite challenging for most of the parents. An important reason for this is vowel sounds is difficult to feel, unlike most consonant sounds. This will make the vowel sound harder for kids to hear.

What Happens If The Child Fails To Master Vowel Sound In Kindergarten?

If the toddler is not able to master vowel sound in kindergarten,

• He/ she will struggle with reading in the near future
• Spelling test will be very difficult and it will affect his/ her self-esteem
• And these issues will repeat and heightens as the child move though different grades

Irrespective of all these facts, there are so many wonderful tips and practices that are proven to help the toddlers to master these sounds without much difficulty.

What are CVC Words?

A CVC word is basic three letter word that is made up in an order of consonant, vowel and consonant. Example: Cap, Hot, Tip, Pen, Hut, etc..

How Can You Know Your Toddler Is Ready To Learn Vowel Sounds?

Once your toddler is able to take a notice and tell apart the beginning and ending sound of CVC words correctly and doubtlessly, you can introduce the child to the world of vowel sounds. As already explained above, vowel sounds are difficult to place correctly for the toddler.

What Is The Difference Between Long And Short Vowels?

A vowel can have long sound, short sound, or can remain silent. It totally depends on its spot in a word and the letters around it. For example, the vowels in the following words are examples for short sound vowels. a in cat e in red i in sit o in not u in bus The vowels in the following words are examples for long sound vowels a in pape e in be i in find o in go u in human

Where To Start While Teaching The Toddler Vowel Sounds?

Short vowel sounds are much more consistent in their spellings makes them the perfect place to start. Therefore, begin with short vowel sounds that belong to same family words, which means the words in which the vowel sounds alike. Therefore, when the toddler able to read or spell one word, they can read or spell another word without confusion. For example, if kids can read and spell cat, they can read and spell other words like rat, mat, hat, fat, or even that and flat.

How to Teach Vowel Sounds to Kindergartners?

At the kindergarten age, different kids will be at different levels when it comes to language and reading skills. While some might have issues, making out the difference between long and short vowel sounds, others may not be able to read the alphabets doubtlessly. Here are some tips to teach vowel sounds to kindergartens.

How To Teach Vowels To A Child In Class 1?

1. Pattern Recognition:

   Guided reading is an excellent way the child recognizes the pattern of the word. Choose your child's favorite book. Slowly and clearly read it to him. Let him identify the vowel sounds. Now explain how some simple changes made to those words change the vowel sounds. For example, if while reading the word "Tap" tell him that by adding an "e" to the end, the meaning of the word will totally change. The tap will change to tape. The short ‘Aa' sound in tap will change to long ‘Aa' sound in tape. By this, you are teaching the power of the letter to your child

2. Illustrated Work Sheets:

   Illustrated worksheets are useful for teaching your child the vowel sounds as they exhibit both the words and the images

3. Songs:

   Songs about letters and words are another helpful tool for teaching your toddler the vowel sounds. With the help of your child's class teacher select one

4. Interactive Games:

   Interactive games that focus on the vowel sounds is another excellent method to teach the kindergartner
5. Teaching vowels a first grader is very important for building his language skill. Try to aim to master the child in handling vowels before he gets into the second grade. The following vowel sound activities will help you:

   1. One step forward

   2. It is a very interesting game designed for the child to distinguish between long and short vowel sounds. Most of the children love this game and eventually understands to differentiate long and short vowel sounds. Here you go,
      • Make a list of words with a long and short vowel sound
      • Read it aloud clearly
      • The child should put one step forward for words with a short vowel sound
      • The child should put two step forward for words with a long vowel sound
      Reward the child when he completes the game

   3. Playing detective

      Select book with big fonts. In a paper drew two columns. In one column give clues like short ‘A', long ‘E', etc. In another column, write down the page number of the book that holds that word. Now ask the child to use the clue and find the word

   4. Repeated oral reading

      Encourage the child to repeatedly read the classic Seuss stories like Cat In A Hat, that include lots of short vowel sounds. Repeated oral reading is found to improve the reading ability of the child throughout the elementary school years

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