Continuous Sounds: Blending tip for beginners
Blending Tip: Use Continuous Sounds First!
When students are just beginning to blend sounds to read new words, one tip I find especially helpful is to start with continuous sounds.
Blending is skill that helps students connect individual sounds (phonemes) to form whole words. For example, blending /f/ /u/ /n/ makes the word fun! But for students who are learning to blend for the first time, this can be a tricky leap.
That’s why I focus on continuous sounds—sounds you can stretch without changing. Try it! Say the short vowel /a/ as in apple:
“/aaaaaa/...”
It keeps going as long as you have air! This makes it easier to connect sounds smoothly without adding extra pauses or “uh”.
These sounds can be stretched and held:
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
Consonants: f, l, m, n, s, v, z
🚫 but don’t completely avoid stop sounds
Stop sounds like b, d, g, k, p, t, are harder to stretch. They have a quick, clipped sound—and beginners often accidentally add an "uh" at the end (/buh/ instead of /b/), which makes blending tricky.
That’s why I save stop sounds for the final position in a word or practice them in isolation, working on cutting off the “uh” sound cleanly.
Now let’s practice!
One way to practice and support students blend with continuous sounds
Before I work with students like Sil, for example, we reviewed the idea that some sounds can keep going and some have a short stop. I model how to stretch out each sound and to listen closely. As Sil becomes more comfortable, she starts to recognize continuous and stop sounds and how this can help her blend sounds on her own.
We practice with words, pictures, or tapping out the sounds.
If she stumbles on a word like sun, I might give her a hint:
“Listen to how the sounds keep going—can you hear the sounds making the word sun? Try saying /s/ /u/ /n/ together slowly first.”
We repeat blending each sound together a few times, and blend until we hear the word. With practice, Sil becomes more independent at blending to read words in books and stories. ☀️
Why continuous sounds matter for struggling readers
Once students feel confident blending with these easier sounds, they’ll be ready to tackle more complex words, blends, and stop sounds with greater accuracy. 🧠🌸
