On May 17, Cecily’s ability to read and build words solidified. While she is still developing an awareness and knowledge base of many of the letter combinations (since English is so straight forward, after all), she is demonstrating a reliable and solid comprehension of the concept of word construction, sound, parts of a word (at this point, just plural vs singular) and combinations.
We’ve begun with small combinations, “at”, “it”, “ig”, “ack”, “ap”, etc.
Lily will either identify the word when the leading or ending, or vowel sound is changed:
rat
sat
hat
bat
lap
lad
rat
rad
rap
ran
ran
run
sat
sit
sun
Additionally, Lily will reliably build the word, if the letter combination is present and she has to either choose the correct leading/ending letter to make the requested word, or she will choose the letter independently and declare the word she has made.
She can make EIEIO too.
At the moment, Ma and Pa, in Man, Pat, Map, etc.. are initially responded to as Mama & Papa, as she is keenly aware of the ma/pa letter pairs. However, with some prodding, she usually finishes by stating what the word actually is, but identifying why/what means Mama/Papa to her.
She is aware of the letters in her name and identifies it when she sees it about 70% of the time. Cecily is less consistent, but she does reliably respond which is which when shown Lily vs Cecily, when made aware that both are her name.
We have explored 1, 2 and 3 letter words at this point, and only a couple that are 4 letters long. She does not yet have the comprehension of longer than three however.