Sound Movements

What Are
Sound Movements

Sound movements are a gross motor learning strategy for beginning readers to remember the letter sounds and the correct formation of the mouth when saying the letters' sounds. They make it easy to recognize the solo letters, paired letters, and cluster letters within words. They are also a physical way to aid readers in blending sounds together when sounding out and spelling words.

www.britannica.com: “ In addition to speech production, the Broca area of the brain also is involved in language comprehension, in motor-related activities associated with hand movements, and in sensorimotor learning and integration.

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Solo Letter Sounds

Partner Sounds

Team
Sounds

Solo Letter
Sounds

Stretchy Sounds
Snap Sounds
Tricky Sounds
Long Vowel Sounds

Stretchy Sounds

These Solo Letter Sounds can be held a long time without distorting the sound. Hold your mouth in the same position from the start to the end of each sound to pronounce it correctly.

o (short vowel)
s
n
i (short vowel)
f
u (short vowel)
r

m
a (short vowel)
l
z
v
e (short vowel)
j

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o (short vowel)

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s

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n

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i (short vowel)

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f

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u (short vowel)

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r

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m

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a (short vowel)

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l

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z

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v

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e (short vowel)

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j

Snap Sounds

These Solo Letter Sounds should be said quickly to avoid adding extra sounds like “uh” to the end of the sound. When saying these sounds, hold your mouth as still as possible or close your mouth as soon as you finish the sound. Technically speaking, “ck” isn’t a Solo Letter Sound, but it’s best to teach this Sound Motions right after teaching the “c” and “k” Sound Motions.

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t

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b

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p

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g

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c

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k

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ck

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d

Tricky Sounds

These Solo Letter Sounds are challenging to pronounce and are often taught incorrectly. The letter “q” is almost always followed by a silent “u”, teach /qu/ as it’s Solo Letter Sound.

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h

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y

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w

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qu

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x

Long Vowel Sounds

Use the same sound movements as you do with the short vowels, but shake your hand and arm as you move them. The long-vowel sounds are typically the same as the letter’s name, so you can remember to shake the movement by thinking, “When you tell someone your name, you shake hands to say hello.” The letter “u” is unique in that its long vowel sound is usually not the same as its letter name. It also has another, commonly used alternate sound – the u (grunt/umlaut) sound.