Say the Sound

What Say the Sound practices

Say the Sound practices letter-sound knowledge out loud. A big letter or letter team appears, and your child says the sound it makes: /s/ for s, /a/ for a, then on through t, p, i, n, m and d, and later sh, ch and th.

Saying a sound aloud is a different skill from recognizing it. It is the sound your child will need to produce when sounding out a word, so clear, clipped sounds here pay off in blending later.

Who it suits

Children from about four who are learning letter sounds, and older beginners or English learners who want to check their sounds. Sounds follow the ReadPals teaching order, beginning with the first ten letters.

How a round goes

The game asks “What sound does this letter make?” and listens. A right sound shows a tick with a keyword picture, such as a sun for s or an apple for a. Your child gets three tries; after that the sound is played so it is never left as a puzzle.

If the microphone is turned down, a grown-up can mark each answer Yes or Not yet. One sound per round makes this quick: five sounds in a minute or two.

A tip for home

Listen for “extra” sounds: /m/ should be a hum, not “muh”, and /s/ a hiss, not “suh”. Model the short version yourself and let your child copy. Clean sounds make blending much easier later.

Try next

• Letter Hunt — goes the other way: hear the sound, find its letter.
• Stretchy Blend — joins the sounds into words by sliding through them.
• Read the Word — puts the sounds to work reading whole words aloud.
• Big & Little — matches each capital letter to its lowercase partner, so letters are known in both shapes.

More from “Letters and their sounds”

• Letter Trace — Trace letters to practice how they are written.
• Which Way Round? — Spot the letter that faces the right way.

Read more

Knows the sounds but can’t blend them yet: why clean, clipped sounds like /m/ rather than “muh” make blending click.