Teach your child how to recognize each sound in a word by encouraging the child to point out each sound, such as "cr-a-sh." As the child becomes familiar with recognizing each sound in a word, encourage the child to further break apart the word by separating blended sounds. Remind the child some sounds, such as "th," "sh" and "ch," contain two letters but make only one sound.
Use the word pair activity to teach children about creating new words by adding a sound to another word. Use "ox" as an example. First, say the word “ox” and have the child repeat it. Next, ask the child to add a new sound, such as "fff" to the beginning of the word and have the child sound out the word "f-o-x." Continue to add new sounds to the beginnings of words, such as "at" and "hat" or "ice" and "mice," until the child comprehends how to create new words.
The clap-it-out activity teaches children to recognize certain sounds within words. Create a list of words each containing two or more syllables; for example, hello, everything, altogether, hammering, hopping and apple. Read the list of words aloud, breaking up the syllables in each words. Instruct the children to clap for each syllable.
"Finding things" teaches children to recognize different sounds in a word. Take several pictures of objects beginning with two or three specific sounds, such as “f” for fish, “e” for eye or “h” for house. Instruct the children to identify the name of each object. Sort the pictures into piles according to the specific sounds.