Early Literacy Game: Name That Sound

Do you have a little one who is just starting to learn how to read and write? Or maybe your child is still a pre-reader? Whatever age and reading ability, you're probably looking for ways outside of the classroom to set up success for your child in the classroom. Luckily, there are plenty of fun games that can help support early literacy skills! 

In this week's blog post, we'll dig into a game that will help your child develop early reading skills. As a child develops into a skilled reader, they need to develop many separate skills. The games that we highlight will help to build some of those skills, and each game can be adapted to your child’s growing ability.

Name That Sound

Ability level: pre-reader

Directions: Play a sound for your child. (It’s helpful to use a smartphone or computer for this game.) Choose anything from animal noises, like a dog’s bark, to the sound of a car horn or a bell. Then, ask your child to guess what each sound is. Lastly, get creative with the sounds and have fun!

Benefits: By challenging your child in Name That Sound, you are developing the connection between sounds and their connected meanings. Increasing your child’s awareness that words are made of speech sounds is an important part of developing those critical early reading skills, and this game is a great introduction to that development.

Be sure to follow along to catch next week’s game. In the meantime, have fun! If you would like more information about this game and other fun early literacy games, check out sightwords.com.