Preparing for the alphabet is designed for students aged 4 to 5 and sets about the basics required for pre-literacy. The explicit 5 minute sessions contain an outline of instructions and guidelines on how to effectively teach initial sound awareness. These instructions can form the basis of assistant and parent education. When Preparing for the alphabet is used in conjunction with PLD’s Pre-Literacy Screening this forms a significant component in a school’s early intervention strategy.

Children require the phonemic awareness skill of initial sound awareness in order to fully understand the alphabetic system. Why? When children are conscious of single sounds (i.e. they can ‘hear’ and ‘say’ the beginning sounds in words) only then does the alphabetic system make sense; as the alphabetic symbols represent sounds (or phonemes) in words. For example; When a child can identify that ‘sun’ starts with a ‘sssss’ and ‘tap’ starts with a ‘t’ it is then an ideal time to introduce the alphabetic symbols that correspond with the sounds that the child is aware of. Too often the alphabet is introduced without any explicit attention to initial sound awareness.

This must-have resource includes:

• Instructions that provide clear guidelines on how to effectively teach initial sound awareness
• Screening tool to determine readiness for an alphabet program
• 27 x mouth cards for continuant sounds with 120 x small activity picture cards
• 16 x mouth cards for stop sounds with 72 small activity picture cards

This publication is mentioned within the Whole School Literacy Strategy booklet on page 6.