One day they’re a cooing, drooling milk-monster and the next they are minutes away from Kindergarten, am I right? Okay, maybe it doesn’t go quite that fast, but as my four year old is inching closer to the transition from pre-school to elementary school and with an educational environment change on the horizon I started to wonder if I’d done all I could to prepare him. I started looking for a next step to lay the reading foundation I know he’ll need in the coming years (and for life).
That’s where The Sound Case really piqued my interest. In 2017 Fundamental Learning Center introduced The Sound Case as a resource for parents and educators to lay the foundational reading skills for children, both typically developing and those showing early hallmarks of dyslexia. In my house, we are familiar with dyslexia, and while I don’t necessarily have concerns for my youngest, I do believe the concepts espoused by FLC are beneficial for any learner.
Additionally, my son does currently receive Speech-Language Therapy. We’re committed to any prevention or intervention that cements a proper sound, language, and speech understanding. It felt like the perfect time for us to introduce The Sound Case at home; he is showing a lot of interest in letters and sounds.
Along with the Case comes the parent/educator log in to the Virtual Training. It took me a few days to work through the training, which was easily done in bite sized portions. The trainings themselves really put the science backed concepts and strategies into laymen’s terms. The training is the adult’s crash course to phonological awareness, the critical skills of sound blending and segmenting, and dialogic reading. As a non-educator I found it very valuable to learn just not the “how” behind The Sound Case lessons, but also the “why.”
With our Sound Case in hand, training complete, and a plan to consistently use it twice a week we are ready to go. My son and I have started at the beginning with the Preliminary Lessons.
Each lesson is paired with a book (many popular titles that may already be in your library or available at the public library). It has been so fun to see him embrace the lessons and take such care completing the tasks associated.
I’m excited to see him advance with the dedicated language enrichment focus we are getting via The Sound Case!
This post is Part 1 of 3 of Ginny’s experience with The Sound Case – more to come in the future!
So what exactly will my child learn through this program?
The Sound Case™ has 43 lightly scripted lesson plans include activities covering the following:
• concepts of print while reading aloud to young children
• expressive and receptive vocabulary
• phonological awareness
• letter recognition
• alphabet knowledge
Each lesson ends with an extension activity that is creative, fun and helps concepts stick!
