difficulties with cccvc words

[lucybp]

Another question - sorry!

The learner I am workign with has found cccvc words really difficult. It's the third consonant that just seems to make it hard.
What I have been doing is just some practice of these words at the beginning of sessions (building/segmenting/blending/manipulating the sounds), but moved onto other aspects of the code quickly too. I don't really want to stop at this stage because he quickly becomes quite disheartened.

What do you think? Is it something he will always find difficult or is it likely to just click? Is there anything else I can do to help? I already get him to read the first two sounds and blend then add the third (difficult) sound.. if that makes sense!



Thanks in advance!

[maizie]

Is he using 'pure' sounds?

The CCCV blends that spring to my mind are the 'str', 'scr' & 'spr' ones. If he is saying 'suh, puh, ruh' he will find them difficult to blend, particularly the final /r/. It's better if learners are taught to say the /r/ as something more like 'er' (only with minimal vowel sound), then they don't have 'ghosts' of vowels getting mixed into the blend.

I assume that he can say a word with a CCC blend in it OK if he's asked to repeat it back to you?

I'm sure he will get there in the end, it's just that blending, if you're not used to it, is quite hard.