Children can be empowered to match what they know best, speech, with what they need to learn to read, print. The ability to connect individual sounds with letter representations is a powerful predictor of future reading and spelling skills. Activities from the online BUILDING BLOCKS program that strengthen letter naming, recognition, and the sound-to-letter correspondence will be shared.

1. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Webinar Series
March 29, April 23, May 3, and May 17, 2012
View the prerecorded
Speech to Print webinar
at
www.getreadytoread.org

2. Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
President, Stern Center for Language and Learning
Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology
University of Vermont College of Medicine
bpodhajski@sterncenter.org
Brenda Buzzell, M.Ed.
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Instructor and Program Coordinator
bbuzzell@sterncenter.org

3. Shared Book Reading
emphasizing Vocabulary
Speech to Print
Phonological Connection
Awareness including Alphabet Knowledge
A research-based and research-proven
professional learning program
for early care and education providers

4. Effective Instruction for Preschool Children
Builds skills
within developmentally
appropriate fun-filled
Engaging activities

5. www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

6. Meets National Child Development
Associate (CDA) credential for
Physical and Intellectual Development
Counts towards
NAEYC and NAFCC
accreditations
Aligns with the Head Start Child Development and
Early Learning Framework
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY® certificate for 12 hours
of Professional Learning is available for $50.

7. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Supporting Early Childhood Education through Professional Development
Free & Online
For
 Early care and education providers
 Parents
Videos  Teaching Examples  Interactive Format
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org
Developed by Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D., Nancy Clements, M.A., CCC-SLP,
Brenda Buzzell, M.Ed., and Marilyn Varrichio, M.Ed.

8. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Welcome to
SPEECH TO PRINT
Including Alphabet Knowledge
WEBINAR 4
May 17, 2012
1:00 EST
Thanks to generous grant support given to a collaboration between the Stern Center for Language and
Learning and the Lee Pesky Learning Center for dissemination of www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org

9. The Alphabetic Principle
Bridging Speech to Print
Understanding that sounds heard in spoken words
are represented by letters
AND knowing the sound
each letter or group of letters can make

10. Letter knowledge
and phonological awareness
are two of the strongest predictors
of later reading. (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2001)
Knowledge of the names Spoken language can be
and sounds associated broken into parts
with printed letters

11. Children are wired for sound
but print
is an optional accessory
that must be
bolted on painstakingly.
(Pinker, 1997)

12. Speech to Print
The process of using
what they know –
speech –
to master
what they
do not yet know –
print

13. Website

14. Concept of a Word
Concept of a word means that
words in print are made out of letters
with spaces on either side
Phonological awareness Print in context
Word awareness Concept of a word

15. Strategies to Develop Concept of a Word
• Finger-point when reading aloud
• Child dictates words in a story while
adult writes and then reads back
• After using pictures with words,
progress to writing sentences when
labeling objects (Boots go here.)
• Let child have his or her own pointer to
read song charts or daily news charts

16. Concept of a Letter
Letters have specific shapes
Letters have names
Letters have sounds
Letters are used to form words
A, B, C, G, I, T
BIG CAT

17. Alphabet Song
To the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb
A B C D E F G
H I J
K L M
N O P Q R S T
U V W
X Y Z

18. Alphabet Song a b c d
to the tune of “London Bridge”
e f g
h i j
k l m
n o p q
rs t
uv
w x y z

19. Website

20. Website

21. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
What the child needs to learn
ZPD
What the child knows
Vygotsky, 1978
Performance comes before competence.
Cazden, 1981

22. SCAFFOLDING
The support given to children to help
them advance to the next skill
22

23. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
HOW TO SCAFFOLD
Find the zone
Identify what the child knows
Build on strengths
Amplify skills: “turn it up”
(Zaporozhets, 1978, 1986)

24. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
NAMING
RECOGNITION
MATCHING
Teach Up
Test Down

25. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
NAMING
K
M E
F U
L
“What’s this one?”

26. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
RECOGNITION
M L
E K
U F
N
“Find the M”

27. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
MATCHING
N E
K
U L M
“Find the one
that looks like
27
this one.” M

28. Components of Letter Knowledge
• Letter recognition
• Letter naming
• Letter sounds
• Letter writing
• Connecting letters and sounds through
invented spelling
(M. Invernizzi)

29. Website

30. Alphabetic Principle Contributes to Early Writing
Children use their
knowledge of phonemes
to code each sound
with a letter or a
combination of letters
of the alphabet
Explore invented
spellings that establish
an understanding of the
alphabetic principle

31. Beginning Writing This says,
Emergent Spelling Stage “I love my
teacher.”
Symbols and symbol-
like forms
Random scribbles,
letters, numbers, form
messages
No Speech to Print link
Development does not always follow the sequence
• Scribbling (birth to 3 years)
• Recognizable figures and shapes (3-6 years)
(Washington Research Institute , 2005)

32. Two Year-Old Phase
Writing sample
2 years,
9 months

33. Three Year-Old Phase
Writing looks like…
Curves
Lines
Oval Shapes
Examples: Sun-like figures, railroad tracks, crosses and faces
(Parker & Marrow, 1989)

34. Four Year-Old Phase
More shapes are added to form familiar objects
(Parker & Marrow, 1989)
“No Cordelia allowed” by Madeline, 4 years old (4/27/08)

35. Five Year-Old Phase
Writing looks like…
• Letters (correctly formed or reversed)
• Copied words
• More details added to pictures
(Parker & Marrow, 1989)

36. Website

37. Website

38. How do you know
if your children
are ready
to read?
http://www.getreadytoread.org/

39. Alphabet Knowledge: the names and
sounds associated with letters
Recognizes that the letters of the alphabet are a special category
of visual graphics that can be individually named.
Recognizes that letters of the alphabet have distinct sound(s)
associated with them.
Attends to the beginning letters and sounds in familiar words.
Identifies letters and associates correct sounds with letters.
Literacy Knowledge and Skills: Alphabet Knowledge:
The Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework
Promoting Positive Outcomes in Early Childhood Programs
Serving Children 3–5 Years Old (Revised Version, 2011)

40. Sample of Common Core State Standards
for Kindergarten
Literacy Element Common Core State Standard
Print Concepts •Recognizes that spoken words are
represented in written language by
specific sequence of letters
• Understand that words are
separated by space in print
• Follow words from left to right, top
to bottom, and page by page
Alphabet Knowledge • Print most upper and lower case
letters
• Write a letter or letters for most
consonants and short vowel sounds
(phonemes)
• Spells simple words phonetically
using knowledge of sound-letter
relationships

41. Learning to read
and write starts
long before
first grade
and has
long lasting effects.
(Strickland and Ayers, 2006)

42. BUILDING BLOCKS FOR LITERACY®
Thank you for joining us!
View the prerecorded webinar at
www.getreadytoread.org
Please visit
www.buildingblocksforliteracy.org