Level 4: Sample Activity

Separation of Sound

Level 4 Activities focus on the separation of sounds in a word. Children ready for this Level 4, have a good sense of focus sounds (phonemic awareness) and are ready to acoustically divide words into their individual focus sounds.

This skill is reverse of sound (phoneme) blending, where “sound units” are combined (Level 2). While separation of sounds (phoneme segmentation) appears to be a simple exercise, many children, even older ones, struggle with this skill. They may be able to identify isolated sounds (recognition), but cannot break a word into separate sound (phonemic) components.

Early Literacy Foundational Skills

• Sound (Phoneme) Counting

  • listen & detect the number of sounds (phonemes) in a word

• Sound (Phoneme) Segmentation

  • listen & detect individual sounds at the beginning of a word

  • listen & detect individual sounds at the ending of a word

  • listen & detect words that rhyme

Sample Activity

GOALS: sound (phoneme) counting & sound (phoneme) segmentation

Materials

• None

Directions

Say two- and three-sound (phoneme) words one at a time. Ask children to orally separate the sounds so that each sound (phoneme) is repeated. For example: no /n/ - /o/; up /u/ - /p/; egg /e/ - /g/; bit /b/ - /i/ - /t/.

HELPFUL TIPS:

• Always model first until the child is comfortable with this activity.

• Begin with words with two or three sounds (phonemes).

• First practice counting the number of sounds (phonemes) in a word. Say the word slowly as the child(ren) listen for, tap out, and count the number of sounds (phonemes) heard.