The Teaching System - Part I

The first part of the system utilizes the musical component of “pitch (tone)” to teach the child the letters of the alphabet. In the first part of the system, All 26 letters of the alphabet are placed on 26 designated keys of a piano keyboard. When a child strikes the piano key marked with a letter, (for example the letter ‘L’) he/she will hear a sound (note) and that will be the ‘L’ sound. The child learns to listen to the letters as notes on the piano as well as spoken sounds. As such, the child learns the alphabet in three ways; (i) its musical sound, (ii) its verbal sound and (iii) its written symbol.

With the mastery of the alphabet, the child begins to learn a series of animal names (nouns). In learning the noun ‘lion,’ the child will be asked to first spell it on the piano. He/she will hear four distinct piano notes and they will represent L-I-O-N. He/she will then spell L-I-O-N verbally followed by the pronunciation of the word. Learning the written symbols (letters) for lion will follow after.

The learning relationship is as follows:

Letter
1 piano note	1 musical sound	called 'F'
1 letter	1 written symbol	called 'F'
1 letter	1 spoken sound	called 'F'
Word
4 piano notes	1 musical word	called 'FROG'
4 letters	1 written word	called 'FROG'
4 letters	1 spoken word	called 'FROG'

The senses of touch, sight and hearing are further integrated by giving the word image, texture and sound. ‘Lion’ is given further definition by introducing a textured reproduction of the word that the child can feel, a colored drawing of the animal so the child can see what it looks like and sound effects of what the animal sounds like. There is an accompanying teaching book entitled Sounds into Syllables® Animal Book as well as a companion sound effects CD. There is also a companion Sounds into Syllables® Animal Workbook in which the child can color black and white reproductions of the animal drawings and trace over reproduced letters of the word in small and large cap.