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Understanding phonics My child has just started school
and is learning to read via phonics. What is phonics? With phonics, children are taught to read by learning the phonemes (sounds) that represent letters or groups of graphemes (letters). With this knowledge, children can begin to read words by learning how to blend the sounds together. Unlocking how this alphabetic code works means they can learn to decode any word. For example, when taught the sounds /t/ , /p/ , /a/ , /i/ and /s/ early on, children can read words such as it, is, tap, tip, pat, sip and sat by blending the individual sounds together to make the whole word. These words can also be broken down (segmented) into their phonemes for spelling. For example, the word ‘sat’ has three phonemes, /s/ , /a/ and /t/ which the children learn to write with the three graphemes (letters) ‘s’, ‘a’ and ‘t’ that they have been taught. They will also be taught to read words – such as ‘once’, ‘was’ or ‘have’ – which don’t follow the phonic ‘rules’. They’ll build up a stock of these tricky words that they can recognize straight away.
Top tips on phonics
Say the sounds correctly It’s important that the sounds are pronounced correctly, as they would sound in speech. Try not to add ‘uh’ to consonant sounds, such as /t/ and /p/, as this makes it trickier to blend the sounds together into words. Link sounds and letters to make words Children are taught in school to quickly see a link between the phoneme (sounds) and a written representation of that sound (grapheme). At home, encourage your child to do the same when playing with fridge magnets in the kitchen, for example, or ‘writing’ when you are writing. Don’t be scared – make it fun! Phonics can seem daunting for parents who were probably taught to read in a rather different way. However, simple games such as ‘I spy’ are great for helping reading, because the children have to listen to sounds. Say, “I spy, with my little eye, something that begins with (for example) the sound ‘f-f-f ’” Look at the ‘football’ or the ‘fridge’. Make sure you refer to the first sound (not the first letter). Take it in turns, with your child saying, “I spy…” Make it lots of fun. Practise! Encourage your child to use their phonic knowledge when they are practising their reading. Make sure that they look at each letter in turn, all through each word. Encourage them to work out the sounds and then blend them together to make the whole word. Praise them for trying to use all the letters rather than guessing from just the first letter or the picture.
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