How to Use 'Tapping"
Tapping is a term many reading specialists like to use to describe the physical movement of your fingers to help sound out words. This makes learning to read multi-sensory, and helps your reader correctly segment words and blend them together to read.
The videos below will help you show your reader how to sound out words using multi-sensory supports.
Basic Tapping
The first type of word your reader will learn is Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words. These words are just what their name implies, a vowel sandwiched in-between two consonant sounds. The consonant sound can be a single consonant, or a digraph. Digraphs are two letters together that make one sound (e.g. - sh, ch, wh, ck. etc...) Here is a short video explaining how to tap CVC words with and without digraphs.
Tapping Welded Sounds & Blends
In Stage 2, your reader will learn about welded sounds and blends. Welded sounds are groups of letters following a vowel that distort the vowel sound. Blends are when two or three consonants are next to each other in a word making individual sounds that seem to blend together. This video explains how to identify these sounds and correctly tap them using multisensory decoding techniques.
Tapping Different Syllable Types
In Stage 3, your reader will learn about long vowel sounds in magic e syllables and open syllables. Long vowel sounds are when the vowel is saying it's name, such as in the word "fade". This video explains how to identify these sounds and correctly tap them using multisensory decoding techniques.
Tapping Multi-Syllabic Words
In Stage 4, your reader will learn to read words with multiple syllables. These words could contain all short vowel sounds, all long vowel sounds, or a combination. We will move from just tapping on our fingers to tapping on our whole arm. This video explains how to identify these sounds and correctly tap them using multisensory decoding techniques.
Tapping Words with Sound & Spelling Options
In Stage 5, your reader has become more fluent and is ready for advanced concepts such as vowel teams. Vowel teams are two vowels next to each other that can say a variety of sounds. This video explains how to identify these sounds and correctly tap them using multisensory decoding techniques.