Hi

If they are doing this as an activity to analyse the sounds in the word and how they relate to the graphemes, then it's important that the child identifies them. You could use counters for sound buttons and 'sticks' (get some little maths rods??). If the words are large enough the child can push these under the letters, if they are able to move objects with any precision. I think the key would be making the words are large enough to accommodate this.

If the child is unable to move these around then I would scribe for the child with them identifying the sounds and then telling you whether to put a dot or a dash under the letters in sequence.

e.g.  the word paint

The child tells  you the sound /p/   - point to the first letter and the child says dot or dash - dot would be correct

the child tells you the next sound is /ai/ - point to the letter a and the child says dot or dash - if they say dash then start to draw the line and have the child say stop when you have included all the letters they need - if they say dot then some phonics error correction is needed. And so on..

I know it's tricky but try to avoid them saying letter names as these detract from the sound based work.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, that's really useful.

Hi

I created some magnets which I used in this way on a magnetic whiteboard. Each was a different colour and I used a Sharpie to add the dot, dash etc.

Jo

I'm also really interested in how this works and for non-verbal / AAC children too.  Would anyone be interested in filming it?