Introduction
When we are very young we can hear sounds. Then we realise that we can make sounds, ... and ... what's more ... we can make the same sounds as other people. We watch faces. We watch the shapes of lips and mouths. We try to make the same mouth shapes and we learn to make the same sound too. We learn to talk. Everyone tells us that we are clever.
CLEVER BOY! CLEVER GIRL!
When we are older we watch television. We watch videos and DVDs. We hear the sounds and we look at the screen. We learn to match sounds and pictures. We learn words.
CLEVER BOY! CLEVER GIRL!
We look at the pages in books. We look at the pictures. We know what they are. We tell mum and dad out loud. We can match pictures and words. We are clever!
CLEVER BOY! CLEVER GIRL!
Then we go to school.
We look at pictures and we look at words. Yes, ... "cat" is a picture of a cat ... we can see it ... and we can say "cat" ... and we can hear "cat". We tell mum and dad, and the teacher. We are clever!
CLEVER BOY! CLEVER GIRL!
Then we see "am", or sometimes "am".
They are not the same symbols, are they? AND ... there is no picture. We cannot see anything.
Help! Someone tell me what to say.
YES ... We can hear it. "am" Two sounds ... the sound for "a" and the sound for "m".
Ah, ... yes, ... the letters are the symbols for the sounds we speak and hear and we can see the symbols..
So we can match each symbol to its sound.
We can hear the sounds of the letter symbols when we say to ourselves
| c a t | r e d | k i t | d o g | b u n |
| s a d | h e n | m i x | l o g | j u g |
| m a p | v e t | z i p | f o g | s u m |
because we have learnt to match symbols to sounds and sounds to symbols.
We can read.
CLEVER BOY! CLEVER GIRL!
BUT, what do we hear in our heads when we see
| s h i p | c h a t | t h i s | q u a c k | ? |
Well, "sh", "ch", "th", "qu" are symbols for sounds too.
What if we say "meet" or "meat"? They both sound the same.
What about "cool" and "foot"? They have the same "oo" symbol, but they don't sound the same.
English! It's complicated!
BUT, JELLY AND BEAN ARE HERE TO RESCUE YOU!!
Oh no! The letter symbols aren't the same aA bB cC dD...
What do we do now????