Glossary · Sounds and phonemic awareness
What is a continuous sound?
Definition
A continuous sound is a speech sound you can hold for as long as you have breath, such as /m/, /s/, /f/, /l/ and every vowel.
Try saying /mmm/ for three seconds, then try /b/ for three seconds. The /m/ keeps going; the /b/ is over in an instant. That is the difference between a continuous sound and a stop sound.
Continuous sounds are the easiest to blend, because there's no gap between them. That's why many sequences start with letters like m, s, a and f, and why early blending practice favors words like man and sat.
The group includes /m/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /f/, /v/, /l/, /r/, /sh/, /th/ and the vowels. When modeling them, hold them long and loud; that's the whole point.
In a lesson
Read fan as one long sound, “fffăăănnn,” without stopping. Then try map. The m and a run together but the p closes the word off at the end.
Examples
Each word with its spelling units, one per sound.
- lashl·a·sh
- manm·a·n
- sats·a·t
- fellf·e·ll
Words come from our lexicon, checked against a pronouncing dictionary. Words a student sees in our assessments are left out.
Why does this matter for the record?
If blending is hard, check whether the words you're using start with stop sounds. Switching to continuous-sound words for a week is a cheap change worth noting.
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