Discovery Toys SOUNDS LIKE PHONICS SHORT VOWEL FUN Learning Pathways: Exploration, Thinking Skills, Reading & Language. Build awareness of beginning alphabet letters and the sounds they each make. Use picture cues to help child identify and remember each letters sound. Strengthen recognition of all 5 short vowel sounds embedded in common word family patterns: at, et, it, ot, and ut. Practice emerging decoding and word rhyming skills.