Segmenting Final Sounds
Segmenting final sounds involves the child identifying the last sound or phoneme in a spoken word, for example, “Can you tell me the last sound in the word ship?” Words that contain vowel-consonant endings (eg. net) are easier to segment than words containing consonant blend endings (eg. nest). Instruction should begin with easier words and progress to harder words.
Identifying and segmenting final sounds
Elkonin boxes are a useful method for helping children isolate phonemes in spoken words because they give children a visual representation of an auditory task
Children are presented with a picture, usually of an object containing two or three sounds for beginners, and asked to move a counter into each box as each phoneme is pronounced.
Once phoneme isolation is mastered then counters can be replaced with letters or graphemes
