Phonics Skills
The strategies that build and reinforce decoding.
What Are Phonics Skills?
Phonics skills are the building blocks of decoding — connecting sounds to letters, blending them into words, and recognizing the patterns that make reading automatic.
These guides cover practical, classroom-tested strategies for building and reinforcing those skills, whether you're teaching them for the first time or shoring up gaps.
Phonics Manipulatives That Beat Any Screen
A set of letter tiles. A tray of sand. A stack of index cards. None of these cost much, and none of them require charging. Yet when used with…
Read articleWhat to Look for in a Phonics App Before You Download
There are thousands of phonics and reading apps available for kids right now, and most of them look convincing. Bright colors, animated characters,…
Read articleHow To Use Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping at Home
When your child writes “sip” instead of “ship,” they’re not making a careless mistake. They’re missing a small but important skill. They haven’t yet…
Read articleSight Words and Phonics: Friends, Not Enemies
If you’ve spent any time in early literacy circles, you’ve probably noticed something strange: people argue about sight words. One camp says…
Read articleWord Sorting: The Low-Tech Phonics Strategy with Big Results
Among kindergarten teachers, word sorting holds a quiet kind of reverence. It asks for nothing more than a small pile of word cards and a child…
Read articleDictation as a Phonics Tool: Why Writing Reinforces Reading
Most parents and teachers think of reading and writing as separate skills taught at different times of day. Reading comes first, the thinking goes,…
Read articleDecodable vs. Leveled Readers: Which Belongs in Your Child’s Hands
Walk into any kindergarten classroom, and you will see two very different books being handed to children learning to read. One says, “Sam can tap.…
Read articleCumulative Review in Phonics: The Strategy Most Programs Skip
When a child learns the short /a/ sound on Monday, blends CVC words on Tuesday, tackles digraphs on Wednesday, and then never returns to short /a/…
Read articlePhonics Scope and Sequence: What It Is and Why It Matters
Imagine handing a child a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box and no guidance about where to begin. A few kids might figure it out eventually,…
Read articleFrequently asked questions
Where should I start with phonics skills?
Start with the overview at the top, then use the topics list to jump to the area that matches your needs. Each topic links to a fuller guide.
Who are these phonics skills pages for?
Both parents and teachers. The guidance is practical and jargon-free, with classroom and at-home applications throughout.
How often is this guidance updated?
We review our phonics guidance regularly against current reading research, so recommendations stay evidence-based.
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Core concepts, sequencing, and the instructional foundations behind effective phonics teaching.
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Intervention, dyslexia-informed support, multilingual considerations, and progress monitoring.
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Science of Reading
The research behind how children learn to read, and what it means for instruction.
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