Letters Go Together

Music Therapy reading and speech videos & songs for special needs individuals.
Goal 1: Client will read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.
Goal 2: Client will verbally produce CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.
Domains: Academics, Speech

Learning to read is a combination of memorization and phonics. Words such as “one” (which sounds like it starts with the letter “w” but doesn’t) or “saw” (which ends with the letter “w” but not a “w” sound) must be memorized. This project focuses on phonics, using 3-letter CVC words in which all of the letters actually follow the rules and produce their most common sounds.

In each verse, the individual letter names of a word are sung. Next, the individual sounds are sung. Then, the letter sounds are combined to pronounce the word. And finally, the word is sung again with an accompanying picture to aid in comprehension. The entire sequence is then repeated with the same word. In the teaching videos & songs, I sing the first time to give students a model. In the testing videos & songs, the student sings the first time and then can hear if they were correct when I sing the second time.

This project addresses the same reading and speech goals as a previous project – Word Families. Some students may find Letters Go Together easier than Word Families because it breaks down words into 3 letter sounds instead of 2 sounds – an initial consonant plus a vowel/consonant combination. Other students may find this newer project more difficult because on each turn both initial and final consonants are altered.

Letters Go Together is divided into five groups of four words each that share the same vowel sound. In selecting the specific words, I made sure to find a three-letter word beginning with each possible initial consonant. (Q and X were not possible.) Also, each four word vowel group never repeats the same final consonant.

The words contained in the songs/videos are:
Short A – cat, dad, lab, van
Short E – net, red, web, yes
Short I – kid, pin, sit, zip
Short O – fox, hot, jog, mom
Short U – bug, gum, nut, tub

Although, the primary goal of this project is reading, it can also be used to address speech. Separating words into three distinct phonemes can assist clients in hearing and then producing more accurate sounds and words.

Download Includes:

  • 10 videos [mp4 video files]
    • Letters Go Together – Short A (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short A (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short E (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short E (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short I (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short I (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short O (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short O (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short U (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short U (testing)
  • 11 songs [mp3 audio files]
    • Letters Go Together – Short A (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short A (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short E (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short E (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short I (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short I (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short O (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short O (testing)
    • Letters Go Together – Short U (teaching)
    • Letters Go Together – Short U (testing)
    • Letters Go Together (fill-in-the-blank)
  • 5 printable visuals [PDF]
    • Letters Go Together – Short A
    • Letters Go Together – Short E
    • Letters Go Together – Short I
    • Letters Go Together – Short O
    • Letters Go Together – Short U
  • 5 lyrics [PDF]
    • Letters Go Together – Short A
    • Letters Go Together – Short E
    • Letters Go Together – Short I
    • Letters Go Together – Short O
    • Letters Go Together – Short U
  • 5 lyrics & chords [PDF]
    • Letters Go Together – Short A
    • Letters Go Together – Short E
    • Letters Go Together – Short I
    • Letters Go Together – Short O
    • Letters Go Together – Short U

DOWNLOAD PAGE


Archtop Music Therapy