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Phonics for children


How to Teach Phonics to Your Child

The answers to our kids' questions about letters, sounds, and words aren’t always as simple as they first appear. How do you explain that the O can be /o/ as in oval or /o/ as in otter, that nanna does not end with the letter R, or why you just can’t sound out the word "was"?

Taking a closer look at what’s involved with phonics, and the role it plays in learning to read can be a helpful place to start.

Why Phonics Is Trickier Than It Sounds

Phonics is the process of teaching children to correlate an individual sound with its corresponding letter or letter group. The more easily they can hear, identify, and manipulate sounds, the easier it will be for them to decode new words when they are ready to read.

Phonics is a fundamental building block of literacy, one that parents can help to develop. But many parents misunderstand phonics to be a program that can teach reading skills “fast” through fun sing-alongs, alphabet worksheets, and flashcards. In fact, it generally takes years to master — while there are 26 letters in our alphabet, there are 44 unique sounds, and most children will spend the better part of kindergarten, first, and second grade learning how those sounds relate to each other to form words.

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Where Parents Get Tripped Up

Any parent who has tried to sound out words with a pre-reader will quickly realize that they have forgotten what hard work it is. Short vowels like “a” and “e” may sound alike to a young ear. Letter combinations like “sh” and “th” are hard to explain to a child who is only recently comfortable with the alphabet. Kids encounter sight words like “the” and “said” that can’t even be sounded out thanks to their irregular spelling! Ask a 6-year-old to spell “kid” and they are just as likely to say, “c-i-d…” as “k-i-d,” leaving parents at a loss for how to explain.

So How Can You Help Your Child?

Kids simply need practice — countless opportunities to hear, grasp, and manipulate the sounds of words, so they can eventually “decode” words quickly for fluent reading. For parents, this might sound like lots and lots of repetition — and that’s okay. It may seem like your child is stuck, but think of phonics like learning a secret code — once your child breaks the code, she'll move forward through that unlocked door without looking back.

One of the most beneficial things parents can do is help their child learn to hear the individual sounds within words. Ideally, he'll receive a comprehensive reading program at school, which includes “spelling rules” and learning sight words. These nine simple phonics-based activities are an ideal way for parents to support literacy development at home.

Focus on the First Letter

1. Talk about the name of a letter and the sounds it makes: Try explaining to pre- and early readers that just like children letters have names, and that also just like children, letters can often say or make different sounds.

For example, you might say, “I can see a letter from your name. Can you see the letter A (say A as in apricot)? In this word it’s making an /a/ sound, a-pple. The letter’s name is A and it’s making an /a/ sound.”

2. Brainstorm words that begin with the same sound: Help your child to think of other words that begin with the /a/ sound. For example, “I can think of another word that starts with that /a/ sound — ant! Can you think of an /a/ word? /a/ /a/ (pause for your child to respond).” If they cannot think of an answer or are not interested, you might like to offer another suggestion or simply leave brainstorming for another time.

3. Have fun with silly sentences that begin with the same sound: If you and your child have brainstormed a verbal list of words you might like to try putting them together into a silly sentence, for example, “The angry ant attacked the apple with an ax!”

4. Play the classic game, I Spy: “I spy with my little eye something beginning with /b/.”

“Ball does begin with b but it’s not what I spy.”

“Bacon? You’re right, bacon begins with b. I spy bacon!”

(The I SPY Books are another way to practice simple words and their sounds, as well as build memory and observation skills.)

Get Them Rhyming

5. Read rhyming books together: There are many fabulous picture books that share their stories in simple rhyme. Once a story is familiar to your child try pausing before the rhyming word, waiting to see if your child offers the correct response.

(You can't go wrong utilizing the classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom or Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. )

6. Play simple rhyming games: Rhyming games such as this First Learning Puzzles: Rhyming help your children to notice sounds within words and to learn that the same sound may be heard in many different words.

7. Play rhyming tennis: This one is great for kindergarteners who are familiar with rhyming. Choose a rhyming sound, say ‘-at’ as in ‘cat,’ and take turns back and forth each saying a new word that rhymes with the initial word. For example, player one says ‘cat,’ and player two ‘hat’, player one then says ‘rat,’ and player two, ‘mat.’ The round comes to an end when one player cannot think of a new rhyming word.

Progress to Hearing a Short Sequence of Sounds

8. Encourage your child to hear a sequence of sounds: This might sound scarier than it actually is! Look for everyday opportunities to break a short word (start with words with just two or three sounds, for example, hat, dog, car) into its individual sounds for your child to zip back together or blend orally. For example, as you are getting ready to go out to play you might say, “I need to put on my h-a-t. Do you have a h-a-t? What do we need to put on?” The answer, obviously, being ‘hat.’

9. Practice with a Phonics book set.  Peppa Pig Phonics, for example, provides parents ample opportunities to sound out short words (and point out the differences between short and long vowels), while your child is sure to delight in the colorful illiustrations and silly antics of Peppa and her friends.

Shop the best phonics sets below! You can find all books and activities at The Scholastic Store.

Phonics teaching step-by-step | TheSchoolRun

Sort your phonemes from your graphemes, decoding from encoding and digraphs from trigraphs with our parents' guide to phonics teaching. Our step-by-step explanation takes you through the different stages of phonics learning, what your child will be expected to learn and the vocabulary you need to know.

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What is phonics?

Phonics is a method of teaching children to read by linking sounds (phonemes) and the symbols that represent them (graphemes, or letter groups). Phonics is the learning-to-read method used in primary schools in the UK today. 

What is a phoneme?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. The phonemes used when speaking English are:

Print out a list of phonemes to practise with your child or listen to the individual sounds being spoken with our phonics worksheets.

Phonics learning step 1: decoding

Children are taught letter sounds in Reception. This involves thinking about what sound a word starts with, saying the sound out loud and then recognising how that sound is represented by a letter.

The aim is for children to be able to see a letter and then say the sound it represents out loud. This is called decoding.

Some phonics programmes start children off by learning the letters s, a, t, n, i, p first. This is because once they know each of those letter sounds, they can then be arranged into a variety of different words (for example: sat, tip, pin, nip, tan, tin, sip, etc. ). While children are learning to say the sounds of letters out loud, they will also begin to learn to write these letters (encoding).

They will be taught where they need to start with each letter and how the letters need to be formed in relation to each other. Letters (or groups of letters) that represent phonemes are called graphemes.

Phonics learning step 2: blending

Children then need to go from saying the individual sounds of each letter, to being able to blend the sounds and say the whole word. This can be a big step for many children and takes time.

Phonics learning step 3: decoding CVC words

Children will focus on decoding (reading) three-letter words arranged consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC words) for some time.

They will learn other letter sounds, such as the consonants g, b, d, h and the remaining vowels e, o, u. Often, they will be given letter cards to put together to make CVC words which they will be asked to say out loud.

Phonics learning step 4: decoding consonant clusters in CCVC and CVCC words

Children will also learn about consonant clusters: two consonants located together in a word, such tr, cr, st, lk, pl. Children will learn to read a range of CCVC words (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant) such as trap, stop, plan.

They will also read a range of CVCC words (consonant, vowel, consonant, consonant) such as milk, fast, cart.

Phonics learning step 5: vowel digraphs

Children are then introduced to vowel digraphs. A digraph is two vowels that together make one sound such as: /oa/, /oo/, /ee/, /ai/. They will move onto sounding out words such as deer, hair, boat, etc. and will be taught about split digraphs (or 'magic e').

They will also start to read words combining vowel digraphs with consonant clusters, such as: train, groan and stool.

Phonics learning step 6: consonant digraphs

Children will also learn the consonant digraphs (two consonants that together make one sound) ch and sh and start blending these with other sounds to make words, such as: chat, shop, chain and shout.

Encoding, or learning to spell as well as read

Alongside this process of learning to decode (read) words, children will need to continue to practise forming letters which then needs to move onto encoding. Encoding is the process of writing down a spoken word, otherwise known as spelling.

They should start to be able to produce their own short pieces of writing, spelling the simple words correctly.

It goes without saying that reading a range of age-appropriate texts as often as possible will really support children in their grasp of all the reading and spelling of all the phonemes.

Phonics learning in KS1

By the end of Reception, children should be able to write one grapheme for each of the 44 phonemes.

In Year 1, they will start to explore vowel digraphs and trigraphs (a group of three letters that makes a single sound, like 'igh' as in 'sigh') further.

They will begin to understand, for example, that the letters ea can make different sounds in different words (dream and bread). They will also learn that one sound might be represented by different groups of letters: for example, light and pie (igh and ie make the same sound).

Children in Year 2 will be learning spelling rules, such as adding suffixes to words (such as -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -ful, -ly, -y, -s, -es, -ment and -ness). They will be taught rules on how to change root words when adding these suffixes (for example, removing the 'e' from 'have' before adding 'ing') and then move onto harder concepts, such as silent letters (knock, write, etc) and particular endings (le in bottle and il in fossil).

Free phonics worksheets and information for parents

For more information about the phonics system look through our phonics articles, including ways to boost phonics confidence, details of the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, parents' phonics questions answered and more.

We also have a large selection of free phonics worksheets to download for your child.

More like this

  • Phonics phases explained

  • 10 ways to boost phonics confidence

  • Spelling in Year 1

  • Common phonics problems sorted

  • What is a grapheme?

  • Phonics games

  • Blending sounds: teachers' tips

  • Best phonics learning tools

  • Teachers' tricks for phonics

Learning English phonetics with children

How to teach children to read in English

So we taught our child to speak simple English with the help of fun lessons (games, cards, videos, cartoons, songs). He is already 6-7 years old, he can read and write in Russian and knows Russian letters well. At the very time to start learning to read in English and mastering the first rules. Of course, the abilities of children are different: for some, the optimal age for learning may be 8 years old, and for some, even 5. Parents themselves should identify the abilities of their children and in no case try to forcibly sculpt geeks out of them just because the neighboring the child is already a polyglot at the age of three.

Basic reading rules for children

Teaching children to read in English should begin in two stages.

First: we learn the English alphabet, and it is possible not in alphabetical order, but starting with the letters used in words that the child has already learned and learned to pronounce well. For example, words:

  • table, dog, cat, apple, water, tiger, lion, car, house, etc.

It is very important to start learning with understandable and familiar words: knowing the pronunciation and seeing the word itself, the brain learns to draw analogies, and the child's brain works intuitively and twice as fast as an adult.

How to teach the English alphabet

It is easier to learn the alphabet using a card that additionally contains a transcription of the sound of each letter.

How to memorize the alphabet:

  1. Learn a few letters a day and use them in words
  2. Note that the phonetic sound of a letter in the alphabet and a word can be completely different
  3. Reinforce learned letters with fun lessons:
    kids can learn with this fun pig family.

I think the lesson below will give them pleasure:

Children learning the rules of English phonetics

The second stage begins at the very beginning of learning to read and runs parallel to it all the way. Children learn the following rules:

  • the same letters and letter combinations in words can be pronounced differently
  • some letters are written but not readable
  • one letter can be read with two sounds, and vice versa: in a letter combination there can be 2-3 letters read with one sound

All this is called phonetics, and in order to learn it, you need to know the rules of transcription and know:

  • What are short vowels sounds:
    are pronounced briefly, sometimes their sound corresponds to a Russian sound, and sometimes a special, so-called neutral, intermediate between two adjacent (-o and -a, -a and -e) sounds
  • What are diphthongs and triphthongs:
    these are sounds consisting of two or three elements
  • What are voiced and voiceless consonants?

Reinforcing techniques for teaching reading

To explain phonetic rules, it is desirable to have cards with transcription of sounds in these categories.
Demonstrating the card, we memorize the rules for pronunciation of each sound, in accordance with Russian sounds. If there is no Russian analogue, then the pronunciation of the sound is written in detail, indicating the location of the language or finding a similar sound

For example, such a rule for pronouncing the sound [θ]:

  • When pronouncing the sound [θ], you need to position your tongue as if you are going to pronounce the sound “s”, only place its tip between the teeth.

Or the following rule for pronouncing the sound [ə]:

  • The sound [ə] is pronounced as the middle between -o and -a, or unstressed -o and -a in the words "water" and "room".

In the process of learning phonetics, we fix the rules of reading on examples of words.

Such not very interesting lessons can be diversified with visual videos:

I can't help but recall the wonderful technology of color reading, which greatly simplifies the intuitive memorization of phonetics rules for children in practice.

See also a very informative and useful lesson on English reading lessons:

English phonetics for children

According to modern psychological and pedagogical research, every person from birth is endowed with the function of perceiving and reproducing speech. It is this innate speech function, and not mechanical memory at all, that is the fundamental basis in our childhood for mastering native and foreign speech, since it synthesizes the necessary mental features for processing and perceiving the sound stream. But innate abilities, as you know, must invariably be backed up by a well-formed set of honed skills and abilities.

Thus, English phonetics for children involves work on the formation of the child's articulatory apparatus and the development of phonetic hearing, which covers the learning of sounds, which are divided into three small conditional subgroups:

  • Sounds almost identical to native ones;
  • Similar, but with specific articulation;
  • Sounds that do not have analogues.

As a result of this division, it is necessary to teach children English phonetics, guided by the following basic provisions:

1. Imitation.

It is well known that children have a very developed sense of imitation, therefore, it is necessary to use this ability. Young children are certainly capable of memorizing a large number of thematically related words or situational emotional expressions. At the same time, the lexical units selected for them should contain the sounds of the first subgroup and be easy to pronounce, not long, but this is only at the initial stage of learning.

2. Features of the speech apparatus.

A child's speech apparatus is characterized by a high degree of plasticity, and, of course, a child, due to personal abilities, is able to more or less clearly pronounce those English sounds and intonation groups that are presented to them. Therefore, it should be remembered that English phonetics for children should not initially be adapted. Such simplification can cause a useless habit of pronouncing sounds not quite accurately, and then, at an older age, one may encounter the problem of relearning.

3. Opposition.

In order for there to be an element of comprehension of phonetic material, it is necessary to place accents and explain the main difference between native, that is, familiar to children, and English shades of intonation and sounds. Constantly analyzing and contrasting the intonation and sounds of the second subgroup, they learn not to confuse them in speech.

4. Differences in sound systems.

The child, listening to foreign speech, pays, first of all, the sounds of the third subgroup, unusual for the native language, and their combinations. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to acquaint children with the pronunciation of sounds characteristic only for the English language, highlighting a separate lesson for them.

5. Development of phonemic hearing.

In order for children to master the sound system well, it is recommended to conduct didactic games, the basis of which would be the generalization and comparison of the sounds of three subgroups and their combinations.

6. Formation of skills.

The development of phonetic skills is based mainly on sound imitation during the so-called phonetic exercise, which is necessarily organized in the form of an exciting game or performance.

7. Recommended number of sounds.

It is inappropriate to plan the study of a whole subgroup of sounds at the same time. Two or three sounds assigned to one lesson are enough, which may belong to different subgroups.

Therefore, English phonetics for children, as a separate section, should include purely phonetic moments, as well as individual organizational problems, and correspond to the characteristics of age. And most importantly, learning should resemble a game and a performance, the participants of which are both children and adults themselves.

Skype English school blog for kids

Did you know that the English alphabet consists of 26 letters and 46 different sounds? The same letter can convey several sounds at the same time. Just don't panic! We will tell you how easy it is to remember English sounds without boring tables and cramming.

As a rule, in English lessons a child keeps a separate dictionary, in which the pages are divided into three columns: “word”, “transcription”, “translation”. New words are written there, which then need to be learned. And if everything is clear with the columns "word" and "translation", then with "transcription" there are often difficulties.

What is transcription? This is a kind of instruction on how to read a word. Usually it is written in square brackets. For example: [pen]. The characters that are inside square brackets are the sounds of the English language. One character = one sound. Only these characters are not always similar to the letters of the alphabet . Let's look at the English sounds that are most difficult for a child and how to learn them:

Do you want your child to keep up in English at school?

Selecting associations

It's no secret that complex things are easier to remember using associations. This rule works especially well for children.

ʊ - short [y] - very similar to the badge "horseshoe"
æ - wide [e] - open your mouth wide and say "e". We call this symbol "bug badge" 🐞
ŋ - [n] - a funny sound that is similar to how the Baby Elephant spoke in the cartoon "38 Parrots" 🐘. Need to say "n", but a little "on the nose", like you have a runny nose . Try pinching your nose with your fingers, open your mouth and say "n". Happened?

ð - interdental [z]
θ - interdental [s]

To memorize this pair of sounds, a child can be told a whole fairy tale: “There was a little bunny (our tongue). But he was very shy, so he sat in a mink (in his mouth) all the time. But one day he dared to stick the very tip of his nose out of the mink (we put the tip of the tongue between the teeth). At first he said softly [θ], and then loudly [ð].

s, d, n, t - [s], [d], [n], [t] - remember the Jumble series about English pronunciation? “You need to talk like you have a hot potato in your mouth,” is the best explanation for the baby. When you pronounce these sounds, the tongue touches the hard palate and alveoli , a little further than in Russian.
r - [r] - the English "r" is not like ours. In Russian, the tongue seems to tremble in the mouth. In English, the tongue "rolls" with its tip back towards the soft palate.
w - [y] / [v] - there is no such sound in Russian either. First, we stretch our lips, trying to say “y”, but then the lips should “spring” , as it were, , without closing and returning to a smile. Remember how you say "Wow!".
e - narrow [e] - similar to the Russian "e" without the "y". When pronunciation, open your mouth quite a bit.
ə - deaf [e] - a deaf, slightly "stifled" sound, very short and almost indistinguishable. When you say the word "m o loco", then you pronounce this sound in place of the first "o". The symbol is called funny - "seam".
ɜ - middle [e] - reads like the letter ё in the word "ice".
j - [th] - very important not to confuse with the letter Jj ("jay")! In transcription, this symbol does not mean at all what the letter means.

To make things even easier, we have drawn the main characters of the English transcription with the appropriate sounds of the Russian language.

Sources: http://englishfull.ru/deti/chteniya.html, http://www.comenglish.ru/anglijskaya-fonetika-dlya-detej/, http://allright. io/blog/2017/09 /18/anglijskie-zvuki-dlya-detej-chitaem-transkriptsiyu-pravil-no/

English phonetics for children. The basics of correct pronunciation

Learning English begins with the alphabet. Then it turns out that the letters have a different sound depending on the position in the word. Studying the phonetics of the English language will help you understand the rules of pronunciation. This topic is considered one of the most difficult, since some sounds form such intricacies that it is impossible to read them without transcription. But we hasten to assure you that setting the correct pronunciation is a task feasible for everyone. And the Capital School Center will help you with this.

Where do you start to be successful in the shortest possible time?

The sound structure of words must be studied not only in order to deeply engage in linguistics in the future. Without knowing the basics, the student simply will not be able to pronounce English words correctly. It so happened historically that spelling rarely coincides with pronunciation. This is due to the fact that the English language developed under the significant influence of French, as well as various dialects.

You can ideally master English grammar, but at the same time put the wrong stress in words. This is what reduces your level of knowledge of English in the eyes of the interlocutor.

Mastering the phonetic course of a foreign language will help you communicate with native speakers in the future.

Linguists recommend starting the basics of a language at an early age.

After mastering the alphabet and the rules for pronunciation of letter combinations, you can move on to monosyllabic words: cat, pig, hat, pan. The main task of the teacher is to teach children to pronounce sounds and their combinations correctly from the very beginning.

Training should take place in the form of a game. Dry academic testing will not bring the expected result. For children, it is important that the activities are interesting and do not cause a desire to run away.
Visual materials make English more accessible for learning and understanding. In the lessons, you can use cards with colorful images, where on one side there is a letter or sound, and on the other - animals, favorite cartoon characters, fruits or toys.

To quickly remember how to pronounce a certain sound, repeat it with your baby several times a day. Choose an English word that the baby will associate with something funny or pleasant. For example, pie [paɪ] will remind you of a delicious summer apricot pie. While studying the sound [ɑː] in the word car, ask the baby to imagine a different car each time: blue, yellow, red, sports or SUV. Seeing a car on the street or on TV, the baby will instantly remember how to pronounce the English vowel correctly.

Do I need Capital School Center courses to learn basic pronunciation?

Of course, you can learn English on your own, but this approach does not guarantee a good result. You must hear how certain sounds are pronounced correctly in words, and understand why this happens. This can be explained by qualified Russian-speaking teachers and those for whom English is native.

Learning to speak a foreign language correctly takes a lot of practice. The advantage of our classes is that the teacher will immediately pay attention to your mistakes and help you correct them. Of particular benefit will be classes with a native speaker who probably knows the rules of pronunciation. We also offer our students to watch movies and series, listen to songs in English as an addition to the main program.

Children learn the rules of pronunciation as part of a course for schoolchildren. Our authoring program is based on the creative idea of ​​traveling around the world, as well as the method of associations and information visualization. Educational literature and SMART panels are also used in the classroom. On the pages of the WORKBOOK for grades 1-2, animal letters come to life, the rescue of which the students are engaged in on the island of Madagascar.

Learn more