January 20, 2026
Word Families
Last week I shared how I incorporate alphabet knowledge into my language and literacy curriculum. Today, I would like to expand on how I use alphabet knowledge as a springboard for engaging my little ones with severe speech sound disorders.
In my experience, children with severe speech sound disorders are not typically showing interest in learning letters and letter sounds. Recently, I had a parent comment that despite using flashcards and the alphabet song, her 5 year old son did not demonstrate any interest in learning the alphabet. Now, with a different focus, he is excited about learning about letters and sounds. What changed? Word families! It is a natural bridge between speech sound practice and learning pre-literacy skills.
Here is how I got my little friend to get fired up about learning:
First, I introduced him to the stimulability approach which shows a child that there are lots of different sounds in the English alphabet. I incorporate Sounds in Motion and a phonics song with an accompanying visual to practice both the sounds and the Sounds in Motion. THEN I add word families to address final consonant deletion. A fun way that I do this is the use of Word Wheels which focus on one word family at a time.
For example, my little friend omits final consonants so to help him learn to include final T in words, he practiced with a word family wheel “at.” Using the Sounds in Motion and the word wheel, he is learning how important a final consonant is especially when we learn about rhyming words in word families. At first, he did not understand rhyming words as his phonological awareness for sounds is only just beginning. He is now up to 80% accuracy both with including final consonants and in the understanding that cat rhymes with bat that rhymes with sat that rhymes with mat.
What fun and, more importantly, what a privilege it is to open up a child’s world to the wonder of letters, sounds, and words!