Initial sound table

An initial sound table (German: Anlauttabel) is a table, list or chart which shows a letter together with a picture of the things whose word start with that letter. They are commonly used in German classrooms for language teaching. The first initial sound table was created in 1658 by John Amos Comenius in Orbis Pictus, a picture book intended for children. They were popularized in the German-speaking areas by Jürgen Reichen who used initial sound tables to assist students to recognise initial sounds and to get first reading and writing skills.

Alternative names: initial sound list, initial sound chart, initial sound alphabet, alphabet chart, alphabet picture chart

Writing to read
In the German-speaking countries, language experience is often based on children's writing of stories that involves invented spellings (e.g. with the help of an "initial sound table" picturing words that start with a specific sound). The Swiss teacher Jürgen Reichen (progressive education) founded this "writing to read" method 1982. The method combines two basic features of in favour of "phonics" (unduly equated with "direct instruction", stepwise teaching, etc.). According to this approach children should be encouraged to "write words as they pronounce them" with the help of an "initial sound list" of pictured words. Constructing words in this way is supposed to help them to understand the basic relationship between spoken and written language.

Johann Amos Comenius already added 1658 an initial-sound-table to his „Orbis sensualium pictus“.

Initial sound keyboard
There are software for children which has a multimedial initial sound keyboard for text input (virtual keyboard). Several hardware keyboards for kids also have initial sound pictures on its keys. With initial sound stickers and a standard computer keyboard you can create your own initial sound keyboard.app0l

Initial sound examples
There are initial sounds, medial sounds and final sounds.