Why Learning the Alphabet is Important for Beginning Literacy

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How many of us teach our young children the Alphabet Song? The ending of the song which children sing proudly is ” Now I know my ABC’s next time won’t you sing with me!” Why do we do this? Learning the alphabet is important for beginning literacy.

A child’s ability to say the alphabet and to name the letters is one of the predictors of future reading achievement. A child needs to have an understanding of the letters on the page with the sounds they represent to begin the reading process.

Many parents reinforce this by reading alphabet books to their children. Often this is even done in infancy in which the parent uses board books with simple pictures for each letter of the alphabet. There is a recognition that the alphabet is important as the first step in literacy

What Letter Names are the Easiest to Learn

One of the interesting things about the alphabet is that many of the letter names actually have the sounds associated with the letter in them. Research has found that children learn the sound faster and more accurately when the sound is at the beginning of the letter name than if it was at the end or not part of the letter name.

Beginning: b, c,d,g,j,k,p,q,t,v,z
Ending: f, l, m, n,r,s,x
Not part of the letter name: h, w, y

If we look at a child’s first attempt at writing we will see that there is more spelling errors on those sounds that are harder to learn their letter name.

Recently I was working with a student in first grade that still was having difficulty with his letter-sound identification. When I made an analysis of where his errors were it was on those letters that did not say its name ( h, w, y). He continued to struggle with the letter w consistently calling it y. Simply having the picture and telling him the sound was not working. We then tried to put some tactile ideas and he traced the letters in sand, made them with play dough, and colored them, but still no success. I then had him draw a picture of Mr. W and his whole family on the whiteboard while we made a story about the W family. This was made the connection for him.

This aids you in thinking multi-sensory and outside the box to do whatever you can to help make the connection for the child. The next time I work with this first grader I might begin with him drawing and telling a story to see if this is his learning style.

Writing and the Alphabet

Learning the alphabet should be done in conjunction with learning to write them. This is crucial as the same area of the brain is activated when physically forming letters as are activated when visually recognizing letters. This is why we should continue to teach penmanship even with the more frequent use of technology. Handwriting and drawing activate the brain in ways that keyboarding does not.

REFERENCES:

Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Schatschneider, Christopher & Fletcher, Jack & Francis, David & Carlson, Coleen & Foorman, Barbara. (2004). Kindergarten Prediction of Reading Skills: A Longitudinal Comparative Analysis.. Journal of Educational Psychology. 96. 265-282. 10.1037/0022-0663.96.2.265.

Torppa, Minna & Poikkeus, Anna-Maija & Laakso, Marja-Leena & Eklund, Kenneth & Lyytinen, Heikki. (2006). Predicting delayed letter knowledge development and its relation to Grade 1 reading achievement among children with and without familial risk of dyslexia. Developmental psychology. 42. 1128-42. 10.1037/0012-1649.42.6.1128.