The importance of developing young children’s early communication and language skills is a vital element of learning that underpins children’s overall achievement. It is one of the prime areas of learning for this very reason. What might be less well understood is how important supporting the development of auditory awareness is as part of the communication process. Encouraging children to refine their listening skills will support children’s ability to speak and eventually impact on their reading and writing skills.

The HfL Early Years team have created a range of activities specifically to support children at the very earliest stages of auditory awareness and discrimination. Children need to be able to listen to and use sounds (speak) to become skilled at understanding and using phonics to support their reading and writing. This is because developing good auditory skills enables children to ‘hear’ differences in letter sounds. The importance of this early skill development should not be underestimated.

The activities in the ‘Foundations for Phonics’ range will enable practitioners, and parents, to fully support early auditory skill development in exciting, interactive and engaging ways. This approach is also used in our ‘follow-on’ range of ‘Supersonic Phonics’ activity cards. The activities can be undertaken in settings or in the home using readily available resources to encourage young children to fully participate in fun activities to support their learning.

The activity cards are in an ‘easy to use’ format that contains all the information you will need to structure and organise an active and fun session. All cards include an image to help practitioners to visualise the resources required for each activity. Clear instructions are provided to enable practitioners to deliver the activities including ideas for extending learning further.

This is a digital download product. The activity cards can be printed and laminated for use by practitioners.

View all 5 Foundations for Phonics packs