Printable guide · ages 3–5

Sounds with Hece

Explore spoken words and simple sound models with a trusted grown-up. This set introduces sound awareness; it does not teach fluent reading or diagnose hearing.

Materials: Your device’s local English voice, a comfortable volume, and optional paper picture cards. No microphone or recordings.

Open the lessons

What to notice

Ask the child to point, listen again or move a card. Picture mode is always available and receives a practice completion without a listening star. Sound-task stars require completed device playback; the path lesson has its own visual goal. Stars are not evidence that a child heard or mastered a sound.

Which words are familiar? Does the installed voice pronounce them naturally? Model the words yourself if needed. Human guidance and picture play are useful even when listening stars are unavailable.

Lesson 1

Sounds around us

Goal: Match an explicitly taught synthetic sound model to its own replay.

Compare only the taught models. Do not ask the child to infer one universal source from an ambiguous noise. Start quietly and use the device’s volume control.

Starting point: Play the two model buttons in a quiet place.
A helpful phrase: Which model sounds like the one we just heard?
A common mix-up: A synthetic bell is not every bell. Never mark another plausible real-world source wrong.
Notice the transfer: A fresh three-sound row checks memory for these models only.

Show: Listen to the new sounds. Put their pictures in order.

Lesson 2

Same or different words

Goal: Compare two spoken whole-word samples as the same or different.

This compares whole words, not isolated phonemes, voice identity or accent. Naming the familiar pictures together first is allowed.

Starting point: Say one familiar word twice before trying a different pair.
A helpful phrase: Did the whole word stay the same?
A common mix-up: Different pictures or colours do not by themselves prove different spoken words. Listen to the pair.
Notice the transfer: Try fresh pairs using familiar things, accepting pointing as an answer.

Show: Listen to each pair. Group every card that says the same word twice.

Lesson 3

Listen to the endings

Goal: Match familiar spoken words that share a rime in the selected language.

English examples are cat–hat–bat, dog–log–frog and bee–tree–key. Turkish examples are dal–bal, nar–kar–zar and taş–kaş. They are independently authored, not translated rhyme answers. Check the actual local voice.

Starting point: Name the pictures before asking about their endings.
A helpful phrase: Listen to the end of both whole words.
A common mix-up: Related meanings do not make words rhyme. Keep the full spoken word available.
Notice the transfer: Use a new rhyming picture group; do not ask a child to read its spelling.

Show: Listen to cat. Choose every picture whose word rhymes with it.

Lesson 4

A beat for each syllable

Goal: Represent the number of spoken syllables in a familiar word with counters.

English targets: sun 1, apple 2, banana 3, table 2. Turkish targets: at 1, elma 2, araba 3, tarak 2. Whole-word TTS is not a syllable-segmentation recording. Model a comfortable spoken rhythm yourself.

Starting point: Begin with one familiar word and one gentle clap.
A helpful phrase: One beat for each spoken part.
A common mix-up: Do not count letters or use English vowel spelling as a syllable rule.
Notice the transfer: Offer a fresh familiar two-syllable word in the current language.

Show: Listen to table. Add one star for each syllable.

Lesson 5

Hear the beginning

Goal: Match the initial speech sound of two explicitly named picture words.

Compare full familiar words with clear consonant starts. No isolated phoneme audio is generated, and a letter name is never substituted for a phoneme.

Starting point: Say the model word and name all pictures before comparing.
A helpful phrase: What do you hear right at the beginning?
A common mix-up: A shared topic or first written letter is not the stated sound task.
Notice the transfer: Use a fresh pair with the same clear consonant onset.

Show: Listen to moon. Group every picture whose word starts with the same sound.

Lesson 6

Beginning-sound groups

Goal: Sort named picture words into two explicitly modelled initial-sound groups.

Keep both model words available. There is no timed sorting or fine-motor drag requirement. Return to one group if two groups are too demanding.

Starting point: Compare one card with one model before showing two groups.
A helpful phrase: Hear the group word, then hear your picture word.
A common mix-up: Milk belongs by sound, not because it is food. Keep the current language’s word names.
Notice the transfer: Offer a fresh arrangement and let the child move a mistaken card.

Show: Listen to both group words. Choose a card and put it in the group that starts the same way.

Lesson 7

Follow a little path

Goal: Follow an ordered open path using large touch or keyboard stops.

This is accessible visual-motor sequencing, not a phonological-awareness measure or handwriting assessment. Pointing and keyboard activation are equally valid.

Starting point: Model one stop, then let the child choose the next.
A helpful phrase: Follow the line to the next stop.
A common mix-up: The open path ends at its last stop; do not close it like a shape.
Notice the transfer: Draw a new wide path on paper and accept pointing along its stops.

Show: Follow the path: touch the numbered stops in order. No dragging is needed.

Lesson 8

A sign for a sound

Goal: Use an explicitly taught sound-to-sign mapping in a new short sequence.

This arbitrary mapping is a precursor activity, not letter–phoneme instruction. Keep the taught legend visible, and distinguish listening from copying a displayed sign row.

Starting point: Play one model and point to its chosen sign.
A helpful phrase: Which sign did we choose for that model?
A common mix-up: No real sound is inherently a circle, square or triangle. This is our game’s code.
Notice the transfer: Use a new sequence of the same taught models; do not change the mapping silently.

Show: Listen to the sounds. Put the signs in order. You can use a sign again.

This set's progress

Completed lessons stay in this browser. Resetting this set keeps all other Kids lessons and other products' data.