Mastery of the Alphabetic Principle Is a Key to Reading Success.
Understanding the alphabetic principle is vital to success in learning to read and write. Learning the ABCs – both automatic recognition of the letter and instant auditory connection to the corresponding sound – is essential knowledge that proficient readers and writers must learn. However, many ABC recognition and phonics instructional programs do not take into account the diverse learning styles and differentiated literacy needs that exist in a typical kindergarten classroom as they “learn their ABCs.” We know that all young children need to feel successful and be emotionally involved for optimal learning to occur. This is especially true of our hardest-to-reach children. Marie Clay’s research reminds us that children come to reading from many paths. A typical kindergarten classroom embraces children who are just beginning to hear and understand the sounds of English and others who are already eager readers and writers. Not all of our children have strong visual pathways for learning. Some of our children have strong auditory learning style preferences, while others are highly kinesthetic. They all need to feel successful. They all deserve to be challenged. Learning letters and sounds must be a multisensory experience that is emotionally connected with pleasure and success as the brain anchors new skills to something that is already known. It must be taught in a context that provides additional challenges for those children who have already mastered the alphabetic principle and are early readers. Learning the ABCs and beginning phonics skills should be done in the most time-efficient manner. We know optimal literacy learning occurs when children are motivated to practice for mastery.
Teaching the ABCs and initial letter sounds through singing and signing is a powerful strategy for developing literacy skills. Providing explicit, systematic phonics instruction that combines sign language, letter recognition, and sound/symbol connection through song is a joyful, accelerated learning approach that produces amazing results.
“Because phonics is not a total reading program, phonics instruction should not become the dominant component in a reading program, neither in the amount of time devoted to it
nor in the significance attached.”
(Report of the National Reading Panel: Reports of the Subgroups p. 2-97)
Engage Parents as Partners to Accelerate ABC and Phonics Learning.To learn the alphabetic principle, children benefit from the consistency of one familiar ABC book with a repetitive linguistic pattern. Providing one familiar keyword image and the accompanying sign provides a pictorial memory hook between letter and sound that makes learning easier. When this alphabetic input is reviewed daily at home and at school, the repetition greatly enhances learning. To make this possible, teachers have permission to make copies of the ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read! reference chart for all of their families. A free download is available online ator sign2Me.com. Families make a commitment to help their child read the ABC Phonics chart several times daily: they touch the letter, and then fingerspell the letter, sign the key phonics symbol while saying the letter, its sound, and reading the word. Soon, it is known by heart – visually, kinesthetically, and auditorily. Children post this chart on the kitchen refrigerator or bedroom door for extra practice, and they play with corresponding flashcards. Learning is reinforced as children share with their classmates about where they put the ABC chart in their home and to whom they read it. Parents and teachers attest to the accelerated literacy gains this repetition provides.
It is appropriate for teachers and parents to have high expectations that ABC sound/symbol knowledge will occur early in the year for kindergarten children, as long as the instructional approach is multisensory, engaging, and takes advantage of how the young child’s brain learns best. Children joyfully sing, sign, and read. They receive daily feedback on their progress, and eventual mastery of this learning is celebrated. Kindergarten teacher Diane Larson gives an award to children when they achieve this goal. She invites the children to “take the ABC challenge and perform their skills in front of their peers.” Successful performance earns the child a colorful certificate that affirms “I took the ABC challenge and won!” In an emotionally safe, noncompetitive environment, children enjoy challenging themselves and celebrate the accomplishments of their peers.
“This ABC immersion process has had amazing results. Children in my kindergarten class who had very little knowledge of the consonant sounds learned an average of fifteen sounds in a four- to five-week period! It helped all kids with their independent writing and helped them in the
process of learning to spell phonetically.”
– Diane Larson, kindergarten teacher, Portland, Oregon
Build Oral Language Fluency and Speaking Skills.Children can develop expressive and fluent oral language, the ability to hear and distinguish sounds, and understand concepts about print before their visual and auditory memory systems are able to decode individual words. When children are given an engaging song picture book that they can actively participate in, they begin tracking the letters and images and developing the neural pathways and the disposition of confident, motivated readers. As they sing and sign with expression and appropriate phrasing, they also effortlessly build the syntax of our language and practicing effective oral communication skills. We include the written word of the key sound image on each alphabet page to provide additional challenge for the early readers. Differentiated instruction is efficiently accomplished using the same reading material.
For new information to go into long-term memory and to be available for recall, it must be emotionally charged. Children’s joyful, emotional, and kinesthetic involvement with learning letters and sounds accelerates their learning and supports their desire to be readers. Literacy skills are most easily remembered when hooked to language and experiences that children take pleasure in. When children sing “A/a/alligator” while they sign the letter and physically become the alligator through facial and body movement, this provides a much stronger memory connection for the brain to remember the letter and sound “A” than if they were solely relying on visual connections.
Belief and mental rehearsal are powerful forces in learning; they actually change the biochemistry and structure of the brain. Children can begin to develop the neural pathways for successful reading long before they become independent readers. Shared singing, signing, and reading experiences build oral language, develop a desire to read, and teach concepts about print as the eyes sweep across the page. Emotion and cognition are so tightly connected in the brain – the learning-to-read experience must be linked with pleasure, success, and the belief “I can read!” When our children are joyful and their whole bodies are engaged in constructing meaning and making multiple sensory connections with the alphabetic principle, we have created the optimum condition for phonics learning.
Teachers and parents are amazed at how quickly and eagerly young children learn letters and sounds through singing and signing. Fingerspelling provides an important kinesthetic avenue to enhance letter and sound recognition and dramatically increases recall. By using the familiar ABCs melody and connecting the letter and sound, the brain is able to chunk the entire alphabet with corresponding sound, key phonics object, fingerspelling, and sign language in one efficient memory space. This knowledge is further reinforced as the children learn about their classmates and study the letters in each other’s names. Wise, knowledgeable teachers understand that personalizing ABC instruction creates relevance and motivation, thus accelerating learning.
The ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read! song picture book with “parents as partners” collaboration works for children at all levels on the reading continuum, from those who are learning the sounds of the language and developing phonemic awareness to those who are fluent, independent readers. Multisensory learning within a social context ensures every child an equal opportunity for optimum skill development within a love of language. This ABC and Phonics Immersion program is strong enough to be the core literacy resource for developing the alphabetic principle – it can also be used to supplement other reading materials that may not be multisensory or engaging enough to meet diverse learning needs and focus children’s attention. Parents love the ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read! book so much they often purchase a copy for their own family library.
The ABC Phonics Sing, Sign, and Read! book invites active group participation in the classroom and builds community through shared language experiences. Skills are anchored in meaningful language. This provides all children with the literacy foundation and the motivation to be successful readers. Signing and expressing meaning through sign language honors today’s multiethnic learning communities. Children first delight in role-playing themselves as successful readers with this familiar song pattern. This “magical memory reading” stage that allows all children to affirm “I Can Read!” (even those with limited English skills) must be honored while children are developing essential reading skills. Children proudly sing, sign, and read this ABC book over and over again, thus building fluency with oral language while simultaneously developing the alphabetic principle and concepts about how print works.
Children deserve to memorize, recite, and perform beautiful and delightful language. They love to turn print into sound and turn the pleasures of sound over to an appreciative audience. Performing songs in sign language supports fluency in reading and speaking. When young children sing, sign, and perform this active ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read! song for family and friends, the enthusiastic response and applause is a very affirming experience. It gives children pride in their new skills and boosts their confidence and motivation to meet other learning challenges.
Reinforcing effort and providing recognition, without setting up competition, is one of the practices that makes the biggest differences in student learning. (See Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Robert J. Marzano.) Research also shows that meaningful homework with “parents as partners” multiplies our teaching effectiveness. Exemplary preK-1 classrooms are language learning workshops where children practice using language in all its modalities to learn about their world. The neurosciences remind us that the brain is a “musical brain,” uniquely wired to allow large bodies of information to be effortlessly compacted into one memory space through a song. Making bridges between what is already known and new information is another key principle of effective learning. Most children learn the ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read! song much easier than they could acquire the knowledge by learning letters and sounds in isolation. Children focus attention because they are signing, they activate prior knowledge because they already know the familiar ABC song melody, and they identify with the children, familiar animals, and events in the book. This multimodal approach to learning is highly successful because it takes advantage of how the young child learns best – through total, emotional, physical response to language.
“Brain reorganization takes place only when the animal pays attention to the sensory input and to the task. Only when the animal is trying to learn or form a memory does it do so. Active engagement in a task reorganizes the brain. Passive stimulation does not.”– John Brewer
Reading Success or Failure Generalizes to the Child’s Whole Self-Concept.Bruno Bettleheim’s research reminds us that how a child perceives him or herself in the act of learning to read generalizes to their whole self-concept. Our early literacy instruction must allow children to build on success, so they associate positive feelings with learning to read. While we are developing essential language and literacy skills, we can and must nurture belief systems that allow young children to see themselves as successful readers and successful people. Only then can we nurture the disposition of children who love to learn and who are motivate to work hard toward new goals.
Early literacy research supports teaching letters and sounds within the context of meaningful language. 
When the child is focused and actively engaged, their brain is the most receptive to language learning. They are creating memory hooks in many modalities, combining auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning. A comprehensive early literacy program must respect diverse learning styles and develop belief systems that allow all young children to affirm, “I can read,” “I care about reading,” and “I belong in this community of learners.” Using the ABC Phonics: Sing, Sign, and Read! program (with its accompanying CD, instructional video and support materials) at school and at home builds success and confidence for children at all levels on the reading continuum. This approach to language and literacy is respectful of the diverse ways of knowing that children bring to the reading process and is in harmony with how the brain learns best. Multisensory engagement simply makes learning letters and sounds more memorable. Closing the achievement gap and meeting high Common Core Standards require choosing the most joyful, accelerated approaches to learning, so that all children can build on success. This powerful approach to ABC and Phonics Immersion deserves a place in every preschool, kindergarten, and primary classroom—it works!
