Word Recognition Interventions

Letter/sound correspondence is a critical goal for beginning readers, but it cannot exist in isolation; letter/sound correspondence is insufficient knowledge for word recognition. O’Connor (2014) writes:

Researchers have identified another understanding crucial to learning to read words: an understanding of the alphabetic principle, in which phonemic awareness and knowledge of letter-sound correspondences come together in the practical application of reading. The alphabetic principle can be understood in this way: Any word that we can say can be broken up into speech sounds. Any speech sound can be represented with a letter or collection of letters from the alphabet. 

The intervention below supports students who are struggling to understand that words are represented by letters or collections of letters from the alphabet. As you read, consider how you might modify this intervention so that it aligns with your student's strengths and needs in the whole learner domains. 

Explicit Instruction

To support your students' understanding that words are represented by letters or collections or letters, you should start by explicitly teaching this concept. You can start simply by demonstrating that each word starts with a particular letter. This sounds like:

Explain the Skill/Concept. Define alphabetic principle and explain the activity ("Letters or groups of letters are put together to make words. What are words made of?" "Today we are going to figure out which letters words start with by listening to the beginning sound.")
Model Skill with Examples. Think aloud about how you figure out what letter starts a word by providing examples ("When I hear the word 'pig' I hear that the first sound in pig is /p/; I know that p makes the sound /p/; Pig must start with p!").
Model Skill with Non-Examples. Think aloud about how you identify when you've made an error ("When I hear the word 'cart' I hear the sound /t/; I know that the letter t makes the sound /t/, like caaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrt; but wait, that sound isn't at the beginning of the word! /k/ /k/ Cart starts with /k/, Do you know what letters say /k/?"). 
Practice the Skill. Engage in the activity below to practice the skill with your student, providing feedback as necessary. ("Now you try, I'm going to tell you a word and I want you to listen for the first sound in that word.")

Activity A: Phoneme Identity

Teach students to listen for an individual sound in the word, identify the letter that corresponds with that sound, and then move the letter to indicate it's position in the word. O'Connor (2014) writes:

Provide students with a small set of letters on laminated cards (e.g., a, m, d, s), along with [a] two-box onset-rhyme grid. When they can break a spoken word into its onset and rhyme (/d/ - /og/), ask them, "What's the first sound in dog?" (Students respond, "/D/.") "Do you know a letter that makes that sound?" (Students respond, "D.") "Put d in the first box." In this way, children begin to understand that not only does dog begin with the sound /d/, but that the sound can be represented with a letter they have learned to identify.

As children's phonemic awareness becomes more sophisticated, other sounds in words can be represented with the letters teachers have taught.[...] [A]s children learn to recognize the last sound in words and to segment words into three or four phonemes, the letter sounds children have learned can be incorporated into activities.

Phoneme Identity in Action

The teacher shows children the three- or four-square box and letter tiles, as below:

Teacher: "Touch the squares and say the sounds in nap."

Students: "/n/ - /a/ - /p/."

Teacher: "Which letter says /n/?"

Students: "N."

Teacher: "Good! Put the n where it goes in the word."

Students put the n in the first box.

Teacher: "That's right. Here's another word. Tin. Say that word."

Students: "Tin."

Teacher: "Where does the n go now?"

Students move the n to the last box.

O'Connor, R. (2014). Teaching word recognition: Effective strategies for students with learning difficulties (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Think about the following scenario, which takes place after a teacher has explicitly taught that words are made up of letters, and given the student opportunities to practice identifying the beginning letter in words: 
     Teacher: "What letter does the word ball start with?" 
     Student: "/b/" 

In such a case, what might you do? 

When you are planning your lessons, you should anticipate that your student will make errors throughout. Here are a series of prompts that you can use to respond to errors. Keep in mind that all students are different, and that students might respond better to some types of feedback than others.

If your student struggles to meet your objective, there are various techniques that you might try to adjust the activity to your student's needs.