Lively Learning Through Lively Letters
By Jessica Scovel
Last year Parkside’s speech department introduced a pilot program called Lively Letters. Along with classroom and reading teachers of 3-1, 3-2 and 3-4, our goal was to increase our students’ sound symbol correspondence. This ability to know and produce a letter sound is a foundational building block to reading. This is no easy task, especially for children with speech and language-based challenges. Enter a program called Lively Letters.
Lively Letters is a research-based, multi-sensory reading program created by Nancy Telian, MS CCC-SLP. As a speech language pathologist, Ms. Telian’s training in speech perception (hearing a sound) and speech production created a natural springboard for her work in literacy development.
Each Lively Letter has an embedded image that provides an anchor for the child’s attention, memory and speech production. For example, the letter T is a tap dancer who makes the sound, “TTTT” and the letter V is a vampire who drives a van, “VVVV.” Against the backdrop of these images, whole child learning is the name of the game. Each sound is introduced through a song, hand/body cue, story and activity.
I wish every parent could visit a Lively Letters class! Children are moving, laughing, playing and creating – all within lessons connecting speech perception and speech production with a Lively Letter symbol (sound symbol correspondence). Activities are as varied as baking cookies (“MMMM MMMM!”), creating crafts (“Jumping Jellyfish!”), acting out stories (“No, No Soup!”), and marching in a vehicle parade (“VVVV”).
At this point, a reader might be pondering, “I’m glad the kids are having fun – but are they actually learning sound symbol correspondence?” Our students’ following quotes can answer that best!
