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How many sound units are there?
There are 44 sound units in the English language. These are called phonemes and each one has a different sound. This represents a phoneme; this another phoneme [pointing to the Touch-units on the trays], a sound unit, a unit of sound. Our language is complicated because a single sound unit can be represented by any of several symbols and a given symbol can represent several sound units. All of the matches of sounds to symbols are on these four Touchphonics trays.

How many Touch-units or pieces are there all together?
About one hundred and fifty plus two sets of single vowels and single consonants for a total of about two hundred. One thing that surprises the kids is when I show them the four trays and say, "This is all there is to learn. This is everything that makes up our words." They say, "Oh, I can do that." It's just like seeing a set of 200 Lego pieces and not some unimaginable number . . . so it seems manageable.

So they know that there's a limit since all of the pieces to the puzzle are right there in front of them.
Right, and also the Touch-units are arranged in five major groups on the trays to help make them even more manageable. They are then subdivided into letter units that have similar patterns. This really simplifies the system. Here's the group of consonant blends, and here are the letter-units that have borrowed sounds like the gh and ph that say /f/; and ci, ti, and si that say /sh/, like precious, attention, and mission.

So, how about these? [pointing to the ee, oa, ie, and ui group on Tray 3]
Yes. These are the vowel combinations that have consistent sounds. I tell the kids, "You can always count on these guys, they're always there, and they'll never change on you." And here are the vowel combinations that sound alike but look different and these that look the same but sound different. Over here you have the vowel combinations that have multiple sounds.

I see there are several sets of the same letter-units in that group.
That's right, I made one for each sound, like these eas. There are three eas, not just one ea that sometimes says /e/ or /a/ or /eh/ as in eat, steak, and bread. The kid sees this e and this a [picking up the single vowels], and I say, "You put this e and this a together like this, ea [picking up the double vowel ea], and you get three of them." It's a whole different concept than saying, "This is ea and sometimes it says /e/, sometimes it says /a/ and sometimes it says /eh/." And he throws up his hands and says, " I could care less, get me out of here!" But if I say, "There are three eas and when you're sounding a word out, this ea [picking up the one that says /e/] is the one that is used most often. There are more words with the /e/ than the /a/ or the /eh/ sound." It's really quite simple, once you see it organized this way.

Why do you use different colors for your letters?
To visually show patterns in words. The vowels are red. The consonants are yellow. The whites are silent. These blue ones are the initial consonant blends and the green ones are the final blends. By doing them in different colors you can see the patterns in the words. This is a yellow b single consonant and this is a yellow r single consonant. But when you put them together, it becomes the consonant blend br, which I colored differently because then when you're building a word, you can pick up the blue br and the red i and the white/yellow/white dge, and you've got bridge. So here's one sound unit /br/ then there's another sound unit /i/ and there's another sound unit /dge/. Without even teaching any rules, look what word structure they can understand. There's no drilling with flash cards, workbooks, or any lockstep instructions.

Do they carry the color image through life?
No. As soon as they know the patterns, they don't need to see it in colors. Knowing it is just like having a cognitive understanding of something. You just know it and you don't even have to think about it or explain it. So many programs try to make rules to explain it. Kids don't remember rules. They remember patterns and they make generalizations from those patterns. Once they know these patterns they can decode and encode words with greater speed of application to other words they encounter.

I noticed you asked Jemma [student] to touch them.
Okay, that's to help her learn to match the sound to the symbol. She said cat instead of cap, then when she touched the p that made her focus on the p and say /p/. I ask kids to use this touch and sound routine with each letter unit of a word to help them make the correct match. When she touched the p she realized the error and corrected herself. That self correction is a much stronger experience than if I had corrected her.

I notice that the letters have a coarse surface. How important is the texture?
Some kids actually have to pick up the letters to feel the shape . . . even rub them. That's one of the reasons why it's textured. For kids who need this extra tactile input, it's extremely important. Most kids get enough input by just touching them when they're matching the sound to the symbol. For these kids the texture is not as important.

When teachers recognize a phonics problem with a child, how do they approach it?
Most teachers only deal with the phoneme parts and a few rules that they try to drill into the kids. They don't teach orthographic patterns or the phonemic awareness principles which are just now being identified as a critical part of phonics.

So, basically phonics is made up of parts, patterns, and principles?
Yes, and most phonics programs only deal with the "part," or segment as a visual, auditory task, not a tactile, manipulative task. When you're teaching kids that have trouble, hands-on manipulatives are the best way to teach them. Most of our schools teach reading only through auditory and through symbolic visual means. Letters that can be touched and moved are concrete and not symbolic.

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