Blending is putting together individual sounds to produce a word. For example, the individual sounds /m/ - /a/ - /p/ are blended together to produce the word map.

Blending is a necessary part of learning to read, and the sooner the student learns to blend, the more easily he will learn to read.

Here are some activities designed to help your student learn blending:

Activity #1: “Guess This Word”

Say a word very slowly, pronouncing each sound in the word. Have your student guess the word you are saying. For example, you say /f/ - /a/ - /n/ and your student names the word, fan.

Some sounds are easier to blend than others. At first, use consonant sounds that can be drawn out or held (/f/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /s/, and /v/) in the initial (first) position in the word. This way, the first sound can be blended right into the vowel sound.

Here are some simple words to begin with: fan, man, nod, Sam, van, fin, nip, fun, let, nut.

After the student can easily do this, the other consonant sounds can used in the initial position (/b/, /d/, /p/, /t/, and other stop consonants).


Activity #2: “Say the Sounds Faster”

For this activity, you will need letter tiles or letter cards. Set out three letter tiles to form a short word such as nut. Leave several inches of space between the letter tiles. The student should point at each letter tile and say the sound of the letter: /n/ - /u/ - /t/. Then move the letters closer together and have the student blend the sounds. Finally, push the letters together to form the word and have the student blend the sounds even more quickly, and then read the word.

Activity #3: “Replace The Letter”

Using letter tiles, build a word such as men. Have your student blend the sounds of the letters to read the word. Then have him replace the n to form the word met. Then replace the m to form the word pet. Each new word gives your student a chance to practice his new blending skills.




About the author:
Marie Rippel is the developer of All About Spelling, the spelling program that is guaranteed to work.