Letter Sounds 2 : Digraphs, Trigraphs & Endings

The evidence from reading research is clear: letter-sound knowledge is crucial in learning to read and spell. However, learning the links between letter patterns and speech sounds is not easy! LetterSounds™ 2 Pro provides a unique, fun and highly engaging way for students of all ages to learn the relationships between groups of letters and speech sounds for reading and spelling!

The app uses a patent pending, highly effective, multisensory teaching method which is being described by educators as a breakthrough in teaching students to read. This method makes it easy to teach students to rapidly, automatically and accurately recognise the most common letter-sound patterns in English.

LetterSounds™ 2 Pro was developed by Dr. Bartek Rajkowski, PhD, a speech-language pathologist specialising in reading development. The program is based on research into the underlying mechanisms of reading acquisition and thousands of hours of clinical experience in teaching students how to read.

PLEASE NOTE:

• Requires iPad 2 or higher
• This app is Australian! US and UK accent options will be added in the next update!
• Although students love using it, LetterSounds™ 2 Pro is not just a game - it is a powerful and fully customisable teaching tool. Please take some time to experiment with it yourself before trying it with students!

Why is learning the links between speech sounds and the letter patterns that typically represent them so important?

The past several decades of research have provided conclusive evidence that competent readers are skilled in using letter-sound knowledge to work out (decode) unfamiliar words when reading. Difficulty in understanding that words are made up of sounds (a skill called phonemic awareness) and just how speech sounds are represented by letters are hallmarks of the struggling reader. Furthermore, teaching methods that begin by teaching students letter-sound relationships (synthetic phonics methods) are known to be superior to other approaches in teaching reading, regardless of whether students do or do not have reading difficulties.

Understanding that letters typically represent certain speech sounds poses a challenge to students learning to read since there is no meaningful relationship between the way that letters and letter patterns look and the speech sounds they typically represent. For example, there is no reason why the letter pattern “igh” represents the speech sound in the middle of the word “night”.

LetterSounds™ 2 Pro makes learning (and teaching) these relationships easy through its unique game-based teaching method!

Summary of Features

• Created by a reading specialist
• Scientifically-based
• Easy to use
• Fun, intuitive and powerful teaching tool
• Includes 64 consonant, vowel, r-controlled and common suffix letter patterns and their corresponding speech sounds / articulations
• Patent-pending, adjustable memory-aid system helps students remember letter-sound patterns
• Create and save custom letter-sound pattern sets to complement any synthetic phonics approach!
• Includes preset letter-sound tile sets for popular synthetic phonics programs Jolly Phonics and MULTILIT
• Perfect for beginning readers, older students with reading difficulties or students of English as a second language (ESL)

Although designed to be used independently, LetterSounds™ 2 Pro is a perfect complement to LetterSounds™ 1 Pro, which helps students to learn basic (single letter) letter-sound links.

Whether you are a teacher, parent or reading specialist, we are confident that LetterSounds™ 2 Pro will become a favourite teaching tool!