Your child reads the letter-sounds in a word out of order.
Child reads strap as taps.
• Help your child read through the whole word.
• Make sure your child knows the meaning of words that will help them use
decoding skills, such as rst, last, before, and after.
• Ask your child to point to the rst letter and say each letter name in the word.
s t r a p
• Ask your child to point again to the rst letter, and tell them to read all the way
through the word from the rst letter-sound to the last. /s/ /t/ /r/ /ă/ /p/
• Model as needed, slowly reading each letter-sound. /s/ /t/ /r/ /ă/ /p/
• Read the word smoothly. strap
• Re-read the phrase or sentence that contained the word.
The strap is too loose.
2 Decoding Tips for Parents
ERROR 2: Reads the letter-sounds in a word out of order
Giving ‘tricks’ such as having your child draw a word picture of a bed, imagining a bat and
ball, or recalling which letter has a belly or a diaper takes your child out of the reading or
writing moment and can add more stress to their working memory load.
Keep your child in the reading moment with an emphasis on the letter-sound relationship.
For the letter b, help your child notice that the line comes rst in this letter. Ask them to
make their mouth into a line by pressing the lips together. This prepares the mouth to
make the sound of the letter b, /b/. Have your child say the letter name and its sound each
time it is corrected.
For the letter d, help your child notice that the round part comes rst in this letter. Ask
them to round their tongue up to the roof of the mouth. This prepares the mouth to make
the sound of the letter d, /d/. Have your child say the letter name and its sound each time
it is corrected.
This takes consistency and many repetitions to correct! Use the same error correction cues
every time, and focus on over-correcting one letter-sound before emphasizing the other.
My child mixes up b and d letter-sounds
Decoding Tips for Parents 3