Phase 1 - developing speaking and listening skills

Phase 1 often begins in a child’s pre-school setting and is developed throughout children’s first years in school. Phase 1 develops children’s abilities to listen to, make, explore and talk about sounds. Phase 1 is split into 7 aspects that are explored and developed through games.

7 Aspects of Phase 1

  1. General sound discrimination- environmental sounds
  2. General sound discrimination- instrumental sounds
  3. General sound discrimination- body percussion
  4. Rhythm and rhyme
  5. Alliteration
  6. Voice Sounds
  7. Oral blending and segmenting

By the end of Phase 1, children will have experienced a wealth of listening activities including songs, stories and rhymes. They will be able to distinguish between speech sounds and many will be able to blend and segment words orally. Some will also be able to recognise spoken words that rhyme and will be able to provide a string of rhyming words, but inability to do this does not prevent moving on to Phase 2 as these speaking and listening activities continue.