When you play simple word games with your 4-year-old, you are teaching him that spoken words are made up of individual sounds and that words can be broken into smaller parts. In this game, your child will learn to listen carefully to the first sound in a word and then “guess your word” by blending the remaining sounds together.
- two to five stuffed animals or dolls
- brown paper grocery bag (or larger opaque container, if the stuffed toys are too large to fit in the grocery bag)
Step 1: Invite your child to choose three or four favorite stuffed animals or dolls.If your child refers to a stuffed toy by name, use that name. If not, you can just refer to a stuffed tiger as “tiger.” Name each toy aloud as you place it in the brown paper grocery bag.
Step 2: Tell your child that you are going to say the name of one of the toys in a funny way, and that you want him to guess which word you are trying to say. “I’m going to say the name of an animal from this bag in a funny way. Let’s see if you can guess my word. ”
Step 3: Choose a toy from the bag, but don’t take it out. Say the first sound of the toy you chose…pause… and then say the rest of the word. For example, if you chose a bear, you would say it like this: “Listen: /b/…ear /b/…ear; What’s my word?”
Pull the bear from the bag and hold it up as you acknowledge your child for listening carefully and blending the sounds together to figure out the word! You might say: “That’s right! My word is bear!”
Step 5: Continue with the remaining stuffed animals in the bag.
Step 1: Tell your child that you are going to say the name of one of the toys in a funny way and that you want him to guess which word you are trying to say.
Step 2: To make it easier, reduce the number of choices and provide visual clues. Choose just two of your child’s favorite stuffed animals or dolls. Name each toy aloud as you place it in on the floor in front of your child. “This is a bear and this is a cow.”
Step 3: Say the first sound of the toy you chose…pause… and then say the rest of the word. For example, if you chose a bear, you might say, “I’m going to say the name of one of these animals in a funny way. Let’s see if you can guess my word. Listen: /b/…ear /b/…ear Which one is the /b/…ear? Is it the cow? Or is it the bear?”
Step 4: Acknowledge your child for listening carefully and blending the sounds together to figure out the word! You might say: “That’s right! It’s the bear. When I say /b/…ear together, I say bear.”
Step 5: Play it again with two more animals.
Step 1: Add more challenge by increasing the number of choices. Invite your child to choose three favorite stuffed animals or dolls. Then add three more that begin with the same sounds as the ones your child chose. For example, your child might choose a cat, bear and a mouse, and then you could choose a cow, bird and a monkey. By having a selection of toys that have the same beginning sound, your child will have to listen to more than just the beginning sound in order to correctly identify the toy you name.
Step 2: Tell your child that you are going to say the name of one of his stuffed toys in a funny way and that you want him to guess which word you are trying to say.
Step 3: Name each toy aloud as you place it in on the floor in front of your child. Say the first sound of the toy you chose…pause… and then say the rest of the word. For example, if you chose a bear, you might say, “I’m going to say the name of an animal in a funny way. Let’s see if you can guess my word. Listen: /b/…ear /b/…ear What’s my word? That’s right! My word is bear!”
Step 4: You might try saying each syllable slowly and having your child guess the word. You could say, “See if you can guess this word. Listen: ti…ger ti…ger. What’s my word?”
