During sound blending, students are given individual sounds that they must form into a word. This skill is taught after students have mastered the concept of syllable blending. This page includes intervention strategies that you can use to develop your student's understanding of blending. As you read, consider which of these interventions best align with your student's strengths and needs in the whole learner domains.
Explicit Instruction
If you are intervening to support your students' ability to blend words, you should start by explicitly teaching the skill. This sounds like:
Activity A: Sound Blending
Tell the student three to six sounds and ask the student to put the sounds together to make a real word. “Blend these sounds to make a real word, /m/ /a/ /p/ [map], /m/ /i/ /s/ /t/ [mist]."
Sound Blending in Action
Watch this clip to see how to execute Sound Blending.
Begin by showing children four objects (e.g., pen, chalk, desk, map) or four pictures (e.g., fish, light, sail, book). Tell them the name of each object or picture and ask them to repeat the names. By naming and having children repeat the names, teachers can invite English learners (ELs) to join the activity and be sure that all children have the appropriate word in mind as they try to blend the sounds the teacher provides.
Next, mix the order of the pictures and objects and say each name in a stretched fashion. For example, say, “I'm going to name each picture in a funny way. Listen to this: fffiiishshsh. Say it in that funny way with me.” (Teacher and children together say the stretched form of fffiiishshsh.) Then ask, “What word is that?” Because children are focusing on only one of four possibilities, and because they said the word in the stretched fashion and felt the sounds in their mouth, they are likely to identify the correct word. Use two or three sets of objects or pictures in each session, so the total instructional time is about 5 to 7 minutes.
After several days of practice, teachers can begin to use words without pictures. If children experience difficulty, teachers can return to the state of representing each word with the picture or object until the children can more easily blend the sounds they hear into words.
Teacher: I'm going to name each picture in a funny way. Listen to this: fffiiishshsh. Say it in that funny way with me.
Teacher and Students:"Fffiiishshsh.."
Teacher: "What word is that?"
Students: "Fish."
O'Connor, R. (2014). Teaching word recognition: Effective strategies for students with learning difficulties. (2nd ed.) New York: Guilford Press.
Henry, M. (2010). Unlocking literacy: Effective decoding & spelling instruction (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD.: P.H. Brookes.
Reading Rockets. (2022, August 1). Blending and segmenting games: Classroom strategy. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/blending_games
Think about the following scenario, which takes place after a teacher has explicitly taught a lesson about how to blend sounds together to form a word:
Teacher: "Blend the following sounds to form a word, /s/ /a/ /t/."
Student: "At. Pat. The word is pat."
In such a case, what might you do?
When you are planning your lessons, you should anticipate that your student will make errors throughout the activity. Here are a series of prompts that you can use to respond to errors. Keep in mind that all students are different, and students respond differently to different types of feedback.
| Level of Support | Description of Scaffold | Script |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest scaffold | Try again! Allows student multiple opportunities to practice new skill. In this case, you are trying to determine what type of error the student is making. Is the student only attending to the final sound and then guessing the word because he didn't hear the rest, or is the student not able to do this skill? | "Let's see if you can blend the sounds again. Make sure to listen to each sound and then put them together to form a word." |
| Medium scaffold | Provide resources. Allows the student to use resources to figure out the answer (including helpful supports such as a visual cue or a prompt)
|
"Try blending the word again. You heard the last two sounds in the word, but not the initial sound. Can you blend again, paying close attention to the initial sound?" |
| Highest scaffold | Model, Lead, Test, Retest. Model for the student using this gradual release correction procedure adopted from Carnine, D.W., Silbert, J., Kame'enui, E. J. & Tarver, S. G. (2004). Direct instruction reading (4th Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. | 1. Teacher says the correct answer."Sat." 2. Teacher models: "My turn. Blend /s/ /a/ /t/."(Signal.) "Sat." 3. Teacher leads: "Let's do it together. Blend /s/ /a/ /t/." (Signal.) "Sat." (Teacher responds with the students.) 4. Teacher tests: "Your turn. Blend /s/ /a/ /t/. (Signal.) "Sat." |
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.
| Activity | Description of strategy | Script |
|---|---|---|
| Syllable or Sound Blending | Known words. Give students words they are familiar with before less common words | "We'll start with some familiar words. /ha/ /ppy/. What word?" |
| Shorten it or lengthen it! Give students shorter words to blend (two syllables instead of three). As you are asking the student to blend, make the sounds drag out, or shorten them, depending on what supports the students need. Lengthen the sounds if the students are not attending to a certain sound, and shorten the sounds if the student is not able to put all the sounds together. | "Let's try this word: /ha//ppy/ What word? Now, /ha/ /ppi/ /est/ What word?" | |
| Make it Move. Use hand motions (such as pushing your hands together, like you are pushing the sounds together) when blending sounds as a visual cue. You can also have the students "tap out" the sounds they hear on their fingers. | "Watch as I move my hands together as I push the sounds together to form a word. (Hands far apart) sssss (hands come closer together) aaaaa (hands about 6 inches apart) ttttttt (hands touch). Sat." | |
| Sound Blending | Subtract (or add) time. When telling students the sounds, move from one sound to another more quickly if the student is struggling with the task. Then, gradually add time in between sounds as the student begins to master blending sounds. | "Ok, now I'm going to say the sounds back to back and you try to make the word. Ready? sssaaaattt. What word?" |