souns?

[Shanny2032]

Has anyone heard of this? It is expensive but I think it looks great and my almost 20 month old is so interested in letters!

[jenfl]

That's an awful lot of money. I'm not sure what they can do that magnetic letters can't.

When my 2.5 year old was interested in letters, we did a bunch of starfall.com and talking about letter sounds at the easel with pictures. She picked them all up with no problem and no cost.

[MattBronsil]

I love making fun of websites like this.

"By demonstrating the learning potential of infants and toddlers, the Souns early literacy program is revolutionizing the way children are introduced to the symbols of printed language."

It's not revolutionizing the way they are introduced. It's using methods already out there and putting their own small twist on it and trying to put it to a younger child.

"Souns places specifically designed and sequenced letters of our phonetic alphabet into the hands of infants and toddlers at the most crucial age, between 5 months and 24 months. The hand reaches out to hold, play with and explore the letters. Since each letter is given only one name - the most common sound of that letter - the child slowly builds a base of phonics for the early stages of reading. Learning becomes incidental, natural - and fun. Souns is about early learning, and the hand is essential to this process."

Hand essential to the process? Yes.
Most common sound important for literacy building? Yes.
Not using the name of the letter, but the sound? Yes.
5 - 24 months being the crucial age for this? Uh....no.
At 5 months, their language isn't even developed to the point that they are discriminating between many sounds.

"While highly valuable for typically-developing children, Souns is an especially powerful tool for special needs children with intellectual, physical and/or developmental disabilities for whom reading is often a challenge. "

All those 5 month olds that clearly need extra help with reading because they are behind....

It sounds like Montessori ideas marketed to a parent that just wants to act like they got ahead in something.

What do you mean that your 20 month old is interested in letters? What do you see? Start with that and see what you can do from there.