When we speak, we combine individual sounds to form words. These sounds are often described as speech sounds or phonemes.
A letter is something we see and write. A speech sound is something we hear and pronounce. They are therefore related, but they are not the same thing.
Learning to read involves discovering how letters and combinations of letters represent the sounds of spoken language.
Colored Letters adds colour as another visual cue to help make this relationship easier to recognise.
Letter or sound?
Think of the letter as the symbol on the page and the sound as what the child hears or says.
As the connection between symbols and sounds becomes familiar, a child can begin combining sounds to read words.