Memory and Learning Letter Sounds – Why Mastery is so Crucial?

Introduction

Memory plays a crucial role in a child’s ability to learn letter sounds, but it’s often influenced by how deeply they engage with the material. Repetition is vital—and when combined with creativity, movement, and emotional connection, memory becomes a powerful tool to strengthen the literacy development process. Understanding how these all work together, we shape how we teach letter sounds and, ultimately, support deeper, more meaningful learning experiences.

Why Letter Sound Mastery

Grow as you Go LLC really encourages the tortoise and the hare approach to learning. Slow and steady always wins the race in the long run. When learning an instrument, we practice slow till we reach a point of mastery of a skill, then we speed it up. When learning to draw, we practice slow till we reach a point of mastery of a skill, then we speed it up. The time span between learning letter sounds, letter names, and certain exception phonetic skills, then words...may be too close to acquire mastery in each for our young learners. When these skills are not mastered, decoding words becomes significantly harder and as time progresses, the expectations and standards do as well. Based on my observations as a tutor, it is for this simple reason that our fourth and fifth graders are still struggling with learning to read. So how can we intervene...by providing less information at a time and ensuring mastery of that given information.

Ways to Slow the Process:

• Mastering groups of letters and practicing blending with them, then introducing new ones.

• Reminding children to read slow, even if they are able to read it fast

• Playing fun blending games using the entire body to visualize this skill

• Ensuring the child has achieved mastery through immersion

• Join our Group Tutoring that incorporates kinesthetic learning!

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Conclusion

Memory can be built, that's why they call it working memory right? Remember just like learning a language, a new instrument, or a sport, we want to help our children store this knowledge long-term. By incorporating movement, music, connection, and play, we can foster a holistic approach that deepens children’s understanding, making learning enjoyable and long-lasting.

Be gracious to yourself, and Grow as you Go.

Remember a time when you learned a new skill, how long did you practice?

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