📘 You sit. Someone says your name.

What you’ll learn

1. Your name already has a beatExplain that a clap counts a spoken beat (a syllable with a vowel in it), not a letter, and use the chin-drop or finger-count to find the beats in a familiar word.Development Matters asks children to count or clap syllables. A clap is a mouthful. Cat is one. The IES chin and finger methods make the beat visible. Letters and claps only sometimes match.
2. One clap, two claps, three clapsClap one-, two-, three- and four-beat spoken words accurately, including the Letters and Sounds object set, without counting letters.Tiger is two. Elephant is three. Helicopter is four. Letters and Sounds Aspect 4 claps pencil, umbrella, camera and xylophone, then asks you to guess from the claps alone.
3. Letters are not clapsTell a spoken clap-count apart from a letter-count, and clap compound words by the mouth rather than by the two halves.Apple is five letters and two claps. Butterfly is nine letters and three. Straw-plus-berry is three claps, not two, because berry is already two beats.
4. The clap that helps you readHear the quiet second beat in words such as rabbit, and connect clapping to Year 1’s job of reading words of more than one syllable.Appendix 1 names the unclear unstressed syllable. Year 1 asks for multi-syllable words with taught GPCs. Year 2 shows the syllable boundary, then combines. Tonight, clap three things in the room.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Department for Education, Development Matters (2023): 3- and 4-year-olds develop phonological awareness so they can spot and suggest rhymes, count or clap syllables in a word, and recognise words with the same initial sound; Reception: choose a few interesting longer words from a poem, rhyme or song and clap out their beat structure; Birth to 3: multi-syllabic words such as banana and computer, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/development-matters--2/development-matters
• Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study — Year 1 word reading: read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs; Year 2 notes and guidance: when pupils are taught how to read longer words, they should be shown syllable boundaries and how to read each syllable separately before they combine them to read the word, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
• Department for Education, English Appendix 1: Spelling — words of more than one syllable often have an unstressed syllable in which the vowel sound is unclear: pocket, rabbit, carrot, thunder, sunset, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ccc06ed915d63cc65ce61/English_Appendix_1_-_Spelling.pdf
• Department for Education and Skills, Letters and Sounds: Principles and Practice of High Quality Phonics (2007), Phase One Aspect 4 Rhythm and rhyme, Playing with words: familiar objects with varying syllable patterns (pencil, umbrella, camera, xylophone); clap the syllables, then clap a word without saying it and ask what object it could be, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7aa7b6e5274a34770e630c/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf
• Common Core State Standards, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2.b count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words; RF.1.3.d use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word; RF.1.3.e decode two-syllable words following basic patterns by breaking the words into syllables, https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/1/
• Foorman, B., et al. (2016), Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, IES What Works Clearinghouse practice guide (NCEE 2016-4008), Recommendation 2: teach students to recognise and manipulate segments of sound in speech, beginning with larger units; identify syllables by placing hands on the chin, holding up a finger for each syllable, and blending syllables articulated by the teacher; use compound words (strawberry, cowboy, bookshelf) as a way in, https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide/21
• Nunn, S. and Rutherford-Quach, S., Phonological Awareness: The Sounds of Reading, Institute of Education Sciences / REL Appalachia (28 October 2019): phonological awareness includes syllables as well as rhyme; it is often helpful to use compound words when introducing syllables, or to begin with two-syllable words before increasing length, https://ies.ed.gov/learn/blog/phonological-awareness-sounds-reading

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