Phonological Awareness Skills
| Phonological Awareness Skills | Top Talk Sound Adventure Books fun ways to develop these skills as part of the story adventure |
|---|---|
| Ability to break words up into parts or beats or syllables (e.g., re - mem - ber) | The beginning of all Top Talk Sound Adventure Books have a magic chant to ask Pop and his Top to talk the children on an adventure. This magic chant is actually a pattern of syllables “pan tan can” emphasising syllable formation. |
| Rhyme (e.g., tea and key) | Rhyme occurs throughout the books in verse aimed to make the children laugh and smile e.g., the recipes, instructions or magic spells require the children focus on rhyme to make hilarious combinations such as “the lace from a shoe and a big glob of glue” |
| The ability to hear that words do or do not start with the same sound (e.g., Key and cup) | Pop with his loose wires or clogged ears mis-hears the children pointing out that words can mean different things by just changing the starting sound. The illustrations of these “mistakes” aim to make the children laugh and visually see the contrasts E.g., “Not tea, key...”; Kate, gate, Kate, gate that's tricky for me!!” |
| The ability to segment words in to their first, middle or last sounds (e.g., /k/ is at the beginning of “key” but in the middle of “rocket” and at the end of “duck” - note phonological awareness skills are not related specifically to the “spelling” - it is the focus on the sounds in words. | Every Top Talk Sound Adventure Book specifically focuses on the target sound in the beginning, middle and ends of words to assist in this skill development. For example the picture cues the children are asked to “read” in the recipes, instructions or spells are divided into three parts. The first part has the target sound at the beginning of words, the second in the middle of words and the third at the ends of words. |
| Words can be separated out into individual sounds or sounds can blend together to make words (e.g., “Pop” can be separated into “p - o - p”; and “t - o - p” blended makes “top”) | The names of the small characters in each of the Top Talk Sound Adventure Books are deliberately named using “nonsense” syllables (eg the leaves are called “poh, Par, Poy etc). To begin with they are read as sperate sounds eg “P....oh” to show the children they are simply two sounds blended together. |
| Playing with sounds to see what different combinations can make or if sounds are re-ordered thinking about how they make different words (e.g, trip with out the /r/ would be tip). Hearing sounds in “nonsense” syllables (ie not real words) helps children to focus on the specific sounds in the “words” with out the assistance of meaning. | The names of the small characters in each of the Top Talk Sound Adventure Books are deliberately named using “nonsense” syllables and they appear throughout the book. The children are frequently asked to repeat the names of the characters as part of the adventure. |
| Good phonological skills assist in children developing a link between the spoken sound and the letters that represent then in written language. | The Top Talk Sound Adventure Books highlight in bold the letters in the text for the target sound. By the adult or child pointing to the words of the text as the book is read, the child can begin to link the “letters” with the sounds. |
| Phonological awareness skills are now to develop with oral or talking games (oral language development), through play with rhyme and exposure to written language. | Top Talk Sound Adventure Books allows exposure to all three of these natural ways to develop phonological awareness skills in a fun but concentrated manner. The books encourages the development of talking skills by encouraging the child to talk throughout the book adventure, to look for where the characters are hiding and to re-tell part of the story at the end of each of the books. |
| Inaccurate articulation (speech sound errors when talking) and poor phonological processing (i.e, the inaccurate laying down in the brain processing, storage and retrieval of sounds (memory for sounds) can impact on phonological awareness development and hence reading and academic success. |
Top Talk Sound Adventure Books focuses on assisting accurate and early speech development in order to optimise early phonological
awareness development. The book also requires children to repeat back words with target sounds, phrases and parts of the story with
the target sounds embedded further assisting in exposure to phonological processing skills. The books allows you to take the time to emphasize how words are said and provide the children with the opportunities to try to practise correct pronunciation of words in the fun environment of book reading. The clearer that sounds are laid down the easier it will be for children later on to retrieve the correct sounds in words. |
| Development of oral awareness is thought to be an important step in phonological awareness development i.e., the link between mouth movements and the different sounds that result is thought to assist in sound - letter linking. | Many books focus on letters but the Top Talk Sound Adventure Books specifically focus on the speech sounds themselves - the sounds the letters make.. The idea of a “speech sound” is very abstract for young children. They will need time and practical activities to understand the concept of a sound. A bridge to this understanding can be through developing oral awareness i.e what are our mouths and lips are doing when we say different sounds. Top Talk Sound Adventure Books provide a unique opportunity to focus on speech sounds in isolation, in syllables, words and sentences. In addition each book specifically and overtly describes how a speech sound is produced to increase these oral awareness skills. |
| Book exposure is fantastic for reading, phonological and language is general. Active listening and attention skills are important for all learning. | Attention can be increased when children are not just passive listeners to a book. The Top Talk Sound Adventure Books are extremely interactive as much of the magic (like opening the doors to the adventures, rescuing the fairies) can only be done if the children in the book say the words and sounds too!!! The children are asked to point to pictures and to “read” by saying the picture prompts in sentences further increasing their participation and success. Early participation in books like “reading” picture cues in text builds self-esteem and confidence. |