Early reading foundations
Letter Names or Letter Sounds: What Should I Teach My Toddler First?
You do not have to choose between two pieces of information your child will eventually need to use together.
What if your toddler doesn’t know many words yet?
Can they really begin learning letters and sounds?
It might seem backward. But toddlers are not developing one ability in isolation. Their language is growing while they notice names, sounds, patterns, symbols, movement, and meaning.
So perhaps the better question isn’t:
It’s:
At Read by Kindergarten, we believe they can.
Three Ways to Introduce Letters and Sounds
Parents will encounter several opinions about what should come first. Here are three common approaches:
Emphasize sounds first
Show a letter such as M and teach /m/ without emphasizing its conventional name.
Emphasize letter names first
Teach A, B, C, D… through letter recognition, alphabet order, or the traditional ABC song, then add sounds later.
Teach the letter and sound together
Show the printed letter, give it its name, and immediately connect it with a useful early-reading sound: “This is A. A says /ă/.”
RBK uses the third approach. We teach the written letter, its name, and its first useful sound as one connected lesson.
Letters and sounds are not competing lessons. The connection between them is the lesson.
Let’s See What the Research Says
The foundations that support later reading—especially oral language and phonological processing—begin developing long before kindergarten. A 2025 longitudinal study reported that developmental patterns associated with later reading outcomes can begin diverging during toddlerhood.
That study does not tell us when to introduce printed letters. It demonstrates something broader: the abilities involved in later reading do not suddenly appear when a child enters school. Read Harvard’s research summary.
The research challenges the idea that learning letter names necessarily gets in the way of learning letter sounds. For some letters, the name can help a child retrieve the sound.
If children will eventually need both pieces, why intentionally separate them?
The RBK approach
- Show your child what the letter looks like.
- Give the letter its name.
- Connect it immediately to a useful beginning sound.
Three Pieces—One Useful Connection
Children can also play with spoken sounds without seeing letters—through rhyming, listening, and sound games. Those experiences are valuable. But when I introduce a written letter, I don’t separate its name from the sound we are learning.
The printed A gives the child something to see. The name A gives us a clear way to identify it. The sound /ă/ is information the child will eventually use to read.
English letters can represent more than one sound, so this is only the beginning. We start with one useful sound and add new patterns as the child’s reading grows.
Why Teach Information Separately When It Belongs Together?
You already teach connected information this way. You don’t spend a month teaching:
Then circle back later to show your child pictures of a cow, duck, and dog.
“This is a cow. A cow says moo.”
Your child sees the animal, learns what it is called, and hears the sound connected with it—because those pieces make sense together.
RBK approaches early letter learning in the same clear way:
Instead of placing the information in separate boxes and asking the child to connect it later, we begin building the path from the start.
Does Singing the ABC Song Mean My Child Knows the Alphabet?
Not necessarily. Singing the ABC song shows that a child remembers a sequence. Knowing the alphabet means recognizing individual printed letters and connecting them with their sounds—even when the letters appear out of order.
At RBK, I prefer to introduce the traditional ABC song after a child knows the letters and their sounds. This is not a critical rule; it is simply the sequence I have found works best through years of teaching young children.
Once those connections are familiar, the song helps organize information the child already understands instead of asking them to memorize a sequence without meaning.
If your child already loves the ABC song, keep singing it. Just remember: singing the sequence and knowing the letters are not the same thing.
We Give the Song a Job
In an RBK sound song, a child sees one letter while hearing and repeating its sound. Washi adds movement so the child can participate with more than their voice.
The music is not merely entertainment added to the lesson. It carries the connection we want the child to remember.
See it • Hear it • Move with it
One letter. One sound. One playful song.
Washi turns one letter–sound connection into a short, playful experience.
A child does not have to sit at a table, work through flashcard drills, or recite all 26 letter names on command.
A letter card can become part of a game when the goal is participation—not proof.
They see A.
They hear /ă/.
They move—and tomorrow, they can experience the connection again.
What Should You Actually Say to Your Toddler?
Keep it simple:
Then connect the sound with a tiny experience. Pretend to bite an apple. Move with the Washi song. Find A on a sound card. Say the sound together while your child jumps, reaches, or marches.
You do not need to begin by asking:
“What sound does it make?”
“Do you remember?”
Model the information first. After your child has heard it many times, you can say, “A says…” and pause to invite them in.
If they join you, continue playing. If they don’t, simply supply the sound: “/ă/.” They receive the correct connection either way.
Our job is to teach—not continually ask a child to prove that the teaching worked. Repeated requests to perform can turn a playful learning moment into pressure.
Which Comes First? The Connection.
Parents are often asked to choose between letter names and letter sounds. For RBK, the answer is neither one by itself.
Show them the letter. Tell them its name. Give them its sound. Then bring that same connection back through play, movement, music, and ordinary moments together.
See it. Name it. Hear it. Use it.
RBK begins with the short vowels, follows a connected teaching sequence, and builds increasingly automatic recall across the full letter–sound set before formal blending work.
Your child doesn’t have to know everything before you begin.
They don’t have to speak perfectly.
They don’t have to sit still.
And they don’t have to prove they’re ready.
You can begin with one small connection:
A says /ă/.
You have done more than introduce a letter. You have begun showing your child that the marks they see around them carry meaning—and that they can learn how those marks work.
One connection becomes another. Letters become useful. Written language becomes something your child can begin to understand.
And your child begins discovering:
Starting at two is not asking a toddler to learn like a kindergartener.
It is teaching in a way that still feels like being two.
Through play, movement, repetition, and connection, written language begins to make sense.
We are not asking a child to perform. We are helping a curious child discover that written language is something they can understand.
That’s why RBK starts at two.
Keep building the connection
Want to make letters and sounds feel like play?
See how RBK turns early reading skills into short, connected experiences designed for the way toddlers naturally learn.
Questions Parents Ask
Should I teach my toddler letter names or letter sounds first?
RBK teaches the printed letter, its name, and its most useful beginning sound together. The goal is to build the connection a child will eventually use when reading.
Does singing the ABC song mean my child knows the alphabet?
Not necessarily. Singing the song shows that your child remembers a sequence. Knowing the alphabet means recognizing individual printed letters and connecting them with their sounds—even out of order. At RBK, I prefer to introduce the traditional song after those connections are familiar, when it can organize information the child already understands.
Can a two-year-old begin learning letters and sounds if they don’t know many words yet?
Yes. A toddler’s spoken language can continue growing while they explore print, symbols, and sounds. Starting does not require long lessons, worksheets, flashcard drills, or reading on command. RBK uses short, playful experiences that complement conversation, stories, movement, and the other ways a young child learns.