Activity: Syllable Deletion 

The objective of this activity is to teach your child to remove syllables from a word, verbally.

Before playing, ensure that your child has a sound knowledge of syllable segmentation and blending.

Give the child a two or three syllable word, verbally (a list is included below). Ask them to remove one syllable from the word.

For example, you can ask:

• What is ‘zebra’ without the ‘ra’? 
• What is ‘computer’ without the ‘com’?
• What is ‘helicopter’ without the ‘ter’?
• What is ‘ambulance’ without the ‘am’?
• What i s ‘elephant’ without the ‘el’?

To begin with, it is easier for your child to remove the last syllable. However, once they are comfortable with the activity they can begin to remove the first syllable.

Note: It is not of benefit to ask your child to remove the middle syllable in words where there are three or more syllables.

You can use the list of words below for this activity.

Window                              Zipper                              Ladder

Rabbit                                            Table                                 Dinosaur

Pillow                                             Chicken                           Bicycle

Nursery                                         Pencil                               Scooter 

Apple                                             Banana                            Carpet