Books to Help a Child With Phonemic Segmentation

If your child is in kindergarten or first grade, he is learning skills critical for reading success. Teachers usually begin with letter naming and initial sound fluency, then progress to phoneme segmentation. Phonemes are individual sounds represented by letters. Children segment or sound out each letter of a word then blend the sounds together to make the word. They cannot read independently without being able to perform this skill proficiently. Teachers frequently use books to reinforce phoneme segmentation when they read aloud to their students, and you can continue this practice at home.

  1. Rhyming

    • Being able to hear and produce rhymes is an important phonemic skill. It helps children isolate sounds which is crucial for segmenting words. Dr. Seuss books are effective because they have rhymes on almost every page and are fun for kids to read. "Fox in Socks" and "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" are two good choices. They emphasize rhyming with nonsense words that children are more likely to remember. Nursery rhyme books are another option. Besides reinforcing rhyming, they can increase your child's vocabulary through the use of words they don't encounter everyday like "tuffet" and "parlor."

    Alphabet Books

    • Alphabet books have pictures and words that represent each letter. They also reinforce letter/sound correspondence, the awareness that each letter has an associated sound. "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. and "Dr. Seuss' ABC" are appropriate books for helping your child with phonemic skills while teaching him how to recognize letters.

    Fiction

    • Young children enjoy a good tale, especially when somebody reads to them. There are many fictional stories that your child will enjoy while you use some of the words to help him practice phoneme segmentation. "Snow Music" by Lynne Rae Perkins is an enchanting story about the sounds and sights of the snow in winter. It contains many sensory words and pictures conducive for practicing phoneme segmentation. Some of the words you can focus on are "tree," "snow," "deer" and "cold."

    Repetitive Text

    • Teachers often use books with repetitive words and phrases for echo and choral reading activities. Books that have the same phrase or sentence repeated every other page engage young readers and involve them in the reading process. Many of these words can be segmented, which is helpful for your child. "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle and "The Little Red Hen" are examples of repetitive text books.

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