Sounds Have Letter Teams 1

When children know the sounds of the individual letters of the alphabet, they only know about 30% of the spelling code that appears in early reading books. Next they need to learn to see when two letters together are working as a team that spells a different sound than those letters working alone. We have 15 vowel sounds plus 4 vowel-r sounds but only 6 vowel letters, so we often put two letters together to spell one vowel sound. There are many vowel teams to learn, but these three—ea, ai, and oa—are a very good place to start, because they don’t look or sound similar to each other. Our method is so easy you will think your child already knows the information being taught, even when it is completely new to them. When six-year-old Cole tried this method he said, “This is easy!” When asked if it was easier than how he was learning to read at school he replied, “Very easier!”

The methods that are currently being used in American schools are failing to teach over 25% of children to read adequately. Research shows there is a better way that works for all children of normal intelligence and greatly accelerates learning for most. Our apps make those methods available at home. Children need to see two vowels next to each other as a team, but they also need to learn to see the vowel-w teams (cow, saw, new), vowel-y teams (day, boy, money), and vowel-r teams (car, bird/her/hurt, for/more) in order to easily read beginner books, so don't stop after this app. We use only the tasks that have been found to be the most effective at teaching reading.

In this app, children first watch a short, fun video that clearly explains how the sound /ee/ can be spelled by the vowel team ea, like at the beginning of “eat”, in the middle of “bean”, and at the end of “sea”. Children then practice writing this team while saying the sound /ee/ followed by writing and reading a small group of words with this team. (If your child is not ready for these tasks, please start with the Sounds Have Letters apps, which teach the sounds spelled by the single letters and the skills needed for reading and writing words.) In the second lesson, children learn that the sound /ae/ can be spelled by the team ai, like in “mail” and “pain”. After children practice reading and writing some words with this team, they practice picking which of the two teams can spell these two vowel sounds, followed by choosing which of the two teams can spell the vowel sound in words. If children choose the wrong team, they hear the sound that team represents so that even wrong answers teach the necessary information. The next lesson introduces the team oa as the sound /oe/, which is followed by similar activities. Finally, because the team ea represents the sound /e/ in many common words, children learn about this and read words such as "head", "bread", and "bear". After children see and hear words with ea and choose which sound this team represents, they also learn about and practice reading four sight words with the teams in this app, "great", "break", "steak", and "said".