Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called reading disability, dyslexia affects areas of the brain that process language.

People with dyslexia have normal intelligence and usually have normal vision. Most children with dyslexia can succeed in school with tutoring or a specialized education program. Emotional support also plays an important role.

 Though there’s no cure for dyslexia, early assessment and intervention result in the best outcome. Sometimes dyslexia goes undiagnosed for years and isn’t recognized until adulthood, but it’s never too late to seek help.


Elkonin boxes build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases different colored tokens may be used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in the word.

What is Elkonin boxes ?

Elkonin boxes build phonological awareness skills by segmenting words into individual sounds, or phonemes. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases different colored tokens may be used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in the word.

  • They help students build phonological awareness by segmenting words into sounds or syllables.
  • They teach students how to count the number of phonemes in the word (not always the number of letters).
  • They help students better understand the alphabetic principle in decoding and spelling.

Why use Elkonin Boxes?

Pronounce a target word slowly, stretching it out by sound.

  1. Ask the child to repeat the word.
  2. Draw “boxes” or squares on a piece of paper, chalkboard, or dry erase board with one box for each syllable or phoneme.
  3. Have the child count the number of phonemes in the word, not necessarily the number of letters. For example, wish has three phonemes and will use three boxes. /w/, /i/, /sh/
  4. Direct the child to slide one colored circle, unifix cube, or corresponding letter in each cell of the Elkonin box drawing as he/she repeats the word.

The example below shows an Elkonin Box for the word “sheep,” which consists of three phonemes (sounds): /sh/ /ee/ /p/

How to use Elkonin Boxes?