Sound Hounds

When we think of reading we often think it is a visual event. Learning to read is actually an auditory skill and children need to develop a strong foundation of phonological awareness (the awareness of sounds in words) before they can begin learning to read. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing benefit from explicit teaching of these auditory skills with lots of opportunity for practise.

Goals of the group
The program will focus on the following phonological awareness goals

• To listen to words and segment words into sounds (e.g. what sounds do you hear in the word sun?)
• To listen to words and identify if they rhyme and to generate additional rhyming words (e.g. Do cat and hat rhyme? What else rhymes with cat and hat?)
• To listen to words and break them into syllables (e.g. Can you clap the parts in butterfly?)
• To identify and match initial, medial, and final sounds in words (e.g. which of these begins with a /d/ sound?)
• To listen to words and isolate individual sounds (e.g. what sound do you hear at the end of the word? Which one of these 4 has a different starting sound?)
• To blend sounds in words (e.g. what word does /r/ - /u/ - /n/ make?)
• To manipulate words by removing, adding or substituting sounds (e.g. say ‘fish’ without the /f/)

What do I need to bring?
Bring yourself and your child a sense of fun and some enthusiasm! Parents are an active part in this program and it is important that we demonstrate that we are motivated and ready to learn! Please make sure you bring your child’s hearing devices and wireless communication device if they have one.

Funding
This program can be funded through your NDIS plan using your Capacity Building budget.

Staff
The group will be facilitated by one of our Can:Do 4Kids Listening and Spoke Language Specialists.