Teaching Strategy Demo: Finger Tapping

Dr. Deb Glaser: Finger tapping is a way to help students segment the phonemes in a word. Tap those fingers to your thumb. Say the sounds one at a time, and tap that thumb. For example, try to separate the phonemes in the word shave. The word is shave. Sounds: /sh/, /ā/, /v/. Tap those fingers to your thumbs. Now let's try it with throne. A consonant blend at the beginning of that word. Make sure to segment out each of the consonants. "Throne," that fancy chair where the king sits. "Throne," /th/, /r/, /ō/, /n/. Great! Pull it all together. What's the word? Throne.

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Dr. Deb Glaser: This is Reading Universe.