I remember several years ago, subbing in a 4th-grade class, and one of their morning warm-ups was to divide words into their syllables and mark each syllable type. I couldn't believe that most of these students knew how to do this. I was thrilled! I ran into the teacher the next day, and I remember her saying that this was something really important to her and she wanted to implement it in her classroom.
I was very excited to see this for a few reasons.
First, yes, educators know words and how to read, but may not know how to teach about syllables or why we divide words in certain ways, especially for the students who may need extra support.
An example of that was when I was completing one of my master's classes at a wonderful and well-known university. I remember being in a classroom filled with seasoned teachers. Our professor put a nonsense word up on the board and asked for a student (who were mostly teachers) to come up and divide it. Not one teacher stood up to complete this task. I was very shy and not one to volunteer, but I knew these rules by heart, mainly because I had already been teaching them to my students using the reading intervention. So I stood up and went to the board to divide the word. I was confident that I could do this successfully, and I did. As I walked the class through this and explained some rules, what stuck out to me about this scenario was that many teachers in the room who were already teaching children how to read and spell could not do this task with confidence. This is why I am passionate about educating others, not just about dyslexia, but also about the way that our language is taught.
Secondly, for children with dyslexia, understanding the various types of syllables and how to decode words accurately is crucial for achieving success in both reading and spelling. When they are able to implement these rules and strategies, then they can figure out any word, whether they've been exposed to it or not. That is KEY! We never want to teach them to memorize whole words (unless they are sight words), but we want to teach them the correct decoding skills to use when necessary.
Closed
When a vowel is closed off by at least one consonant at the end
When this happens, the vowel will make its short vowel sound (bat, elk, fig)
Open
When a vowel is open at the end of the word or syllable
It will make its long vowel sound (hi, she, ro-bot, i-tem)
Unit
Usually, there are 3 or 4 letters together that make an unusual sound
Please note that this type of syllable is usually not taught in some reading programs. Some examples are: ing, ank, ture, sion, ture
Vowel Team
When vowels are grouped together to make a specific sound
Know that the rule "when two vowels go walking, the first one does that talking" does not work for all vowel teams and is very confusing for kids with dyslexia.
Some of these vowel teams are: ai, oa, ea, ie, ue, augh, ei, etc.
Silent-E
In our language (American English), a silent-e at the end of the word does not say anything, but has a purpose for being there within the word or syllable.
(have, five, creative, fridge, huge)
Vowel-R Controlled
When there is a vowel followed by an R, the vowel-r will make a specific sound depending on if it is accented or unaccented and several other rules
(AR will say several sounds /ar/, /er/,/or/, and /air/)
Consonant-LE
This appears at the end of a word when a LE follows the consonant.
(bubble, purple, whistle, hassle)
Some of the most common words with short vowel sounds consist of Vowel-Consonant VC and CVC words.
Sometimes, closed syllables are the hardest to hear and distinguish, especially for those with ADHD and dyslexia.
Multi-syllable words that contain two or three closed syllables are the easiest to read.
In our language, 60% of our words contain a short vowel sound.
Schwa is not a type of syllable but is a vowel sound.
If you would like a quick reference sheet for syllables, you can email me at [email protected]