Phoneme isolation has to do with the individual sounds that make up a spoken word, namely, breaking down or isolating the different sounds. For example, a child who can perform phoneme isolation should be able to show where the /”g/ sound appears in such words as ”flag” or ”give” – the beginning of the word, the middle of the word, or the end? 

Learning Phoneme Isolation

In the early stages of phoneme isolation, children may only be able to isolate sounds in a single-syllable word, but after a while, they will tackle much bigger words with ease. 

This skill will come with complete ease to some children. However, others will struggle and may only be able to identify the different sounds without showing where they fall in the makeup of the word. 

Here is a list of fun games to help assist the child with their development of phoneme isolation. 

Building a Sound Train 

This is the most straightforward and most adaptable means of teaching children how words can be broken down into separate sounds. A simple toy train, preferably one with adaptable compartments or freights, is required for this. 

Start simple at first. Given it’s a train, start with a word or noise associated with a train. For example, “choo” could be used. Explain that the front of the train, or the engine, is the front of the word, and the carriage is the end of the word. 

Put the /ʧ/ – or the ”ch” – sound at the front of the train, and the /ʊ/ – or the ”oo” – sound in the carriage. This way, the child can see how the word is separated into two different noises and, therefore, isolate the two visually.

After demonstrating, you can then get your child to separate other words into the engine and carriage for practice. The best bit of this exercise is adding additional carriages onto the train for bigger words with more sounds. 

The Three Little Pigs Rhyme

This could be done visually or as a spoken exercise. Explain to the child that each little pig is hiding a different part of a word, or a ”pig”, in each of their houses. Ask the child which sound is in house number one – the answer should be ”p”. 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

This is similar to the last game, except in the case of this nursery rhyme, the characters are crossing a bridge. Each of the goats is carrying part of a word, for example, the word ”pig”, so the sound that the first goat carrying across the bridge is ”p”. 

Concluding Thoughts

With games such as the ones listed above, phoneme isolation should be grasped in no time at all.