Published: 16.4.20
Updated: 18.7.24

Children learn a lot at school, but many subjects are still challenging for them.

One of the areas where young children often struggle is using vowels and understanding the context in which to use them. This difficulty can make spelling tests particularly daunting.

Mastering vowel sounds is crucial for young learners before they can progress to more advanced levels.

Here are some effective strategies to help your child learn their vowels and understand their correct contexts.

Use Visuals

Most children find it easier to learn when they are shown something visually rather than just reading it off a piece of paper or a whiteboard.

Consider using alphabet teaching cards. These cards often feature characters designed as letters, making it much easier for your child to visualise and understand the vowels.

Ensure the objects are shaped like letters and are colorful, as visual cues significantly aid learning..

Use Hand Motions

In addition to alphabet cards, using hand motions for each vowel can be very helpful, especially for children in middle school.

Hand motions help children associate the body movement with the shape of a letter and the sounds they hear themselves making.

With enough practice, these motions will become second nature, and your child will no longer need to consciously think about them. 

Let's look at a few examples:

For “A” make a triangle pointing upwards with our fingers men touch their thumbs to make the tunnel.

For “E” they make a fist with their left hand and find the lowercase E their fingers made

For “I” they use an upraised hand.

For “O” they touch all of their fingers with to their thumb.

For “U” They use the hands Like An upside-down umbrella.

By memorising these shapes, children will have a strong foundation for learning their vowels.

Use Stories

Storybooks that design letters to match shapes can be very effective. For example, the letter "F" could be represented as a flag, and "M" could be drawn as mountains.

Linking the shape of the letter to a familiar object and its sound makes it much easier for children to remember, thereby aiding in reading and spelling. 

Download Our Visual Worksheet

 Please download here >> RiiRoo Vowel Worksheet

Helpful Hints

• If you're sitting down and reading with your child and they mispronounce a word.  don't worry, all you need to do is make the hand motion for the vowel sound and you should find that this should help.
• If you think your child will have problems with vowels,  then get them to practice making these shapes with their hands as often as possible.
• Where possible start with short vowel words and as your children get better to introduce them too to larger words.

At RiiRoo, we are always looking for fun and exciting ways to entertain our kids and keep the occupied.

If you found this resource useful, please feel free to leave a comment below. Also, if you have any ideas of other resources we can put together, we'd love to hear from you :)

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