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Making Phonics Stick: Help Kids Learn Essential Literacy Skills

phonicsorg on March 11, 2024

Sometimes, it seems like no matter how much you practice with your child or student, they aren’t grasping phonics concepts. Maybe you repeatedly teach your child a letter or rule but they haven’t been able to remember it. This might feel frustrating or concerning. Don’t panic.

There are a few things to consider if your child is struggling to learn phonics. Here are a few tips as you put more effort into making phonics stick.

Why is My Child Struggling to Learn Phonics?

It takes time to acquire important literacy skills, especially when learning to read and write. Children need consistent practice, correction, and guidance. Although possible, children rarely grasp concepts that “stick” right away. But if your child is struggling or falling behind, it’s a good idea to investigate why.

Developmental Factors

Maybe your child is still developing and will grasp phonics over time. Perhaps he or she has a neurodevelopmental condition or a learning disorder that needs to be addressed. Or maybe it has to do with emotions, cultural barriers, motivation, or the home or school environment—many factors contribute to a child’s learning progress.

Lack of Explicit, Systematic Instruction

Regardless of developmental factors at play, most children learn phonics best through explicit, systematic instruction.

Explicit means they don’t have to guess or figure it out on their own. Someone with the right knowledge teaches them through direct, thorough instruction.
Systematic means a child learns the simplest skills first and then gradually practices more advanced skills from there, based on the teacher’s scope and sequence.

Common reasons why kids don’t progress in phonics are that they either need more instruction on a foundational skill or they aren’t receiving proper instruction in the first place.

How to Help: Start With Foundational Phonics Skills

Building foundational skills is similar to building a house. First, builders need a precise blueprint; then, they set up the foundation; then, they construct the house’s frames and structure, and so on.

How can you start your child off with these foundational phonics skills, encouraging them to stick?

Prioritize the Sound-Symbol Correspondence

To read with confidence and accuracy, children first need to follow the most basic phonics rules. To know these rules, children must learn sound-symbol correspondences. This means:

The child knows the letters of the alphabet
The child understands the alphabetic principle—words are made up of letters, and those letters represent sounds
The child is taught which symbols (letters in print) correspond to which sounds (phonemes in the English language)

Evidence reveals that sound-symbol correspondence learning can predict future reading performance and fluency. It’s important for kids to accurately learn the correlation between letters and sounds because it contributes to their decoding abilities, which is a vital phonics skill for reading.

If your child knows the alphabet, appears to “read” some words, but struggles to read new or unfamiliar words accurately, they might need to go back and learn to master letter sounds. After they understand individual letter sounds, they can practice blending the sounds to read words.

More Decoding, Less Memorization

If you or your child’s teachers are focusing their reading instruction on memorizing whole words, it’s likely one reason why the child isn’t grasping the content. Visual memorization of whole words is an inefficient method of teaching a child to read.

It is easier for children to recognize words quickly when instruction is connected to auditory information. This is part of a process called orthographic mapping. The practice of sounding out words leads to sight word recognition – the instant and immediate recognition of words.

Focusing on building a child’s decoding skills, empowers them to “sound out” new words they come across in print. Decoding is essential at every new level of phonics instruction. If a student can’t decode words from beginning to end, they risk confusion as concepts become more advanced.

Understand the Science of Reading

According to the science of reading, acquiring the skills to read involves a lot of cognitive effort. Children cannot naturally develop the skills that are essential for reading, beginning with basic phonics. They must not only be taught but also routinely engaged with instruction as their brains develop new, complex connections between symbols and sounds.

For this reason, phonics must be taught and practiced in ways that are backed by evidence. To understand how and why effective phonics instruction works, familiarize yourself with the science of reading. It will help you help your child as they grow in this area.

Avoid Ineffective Phonics Instruction

Phonics education standards and methods have changed throughout history; even recently. Today, certain methods that are still used in teaching involve the opposite of explicit, systematic instruction.

Here are examples of bound-to-fail phonics instruction habits to avoid:

Not giving students enough repetition and review of concepts. Systematic instruction purposefully reviews and repeats concepts to encourage mastery.
Isolating skill work from real-world applications. Students benefit from both phonics skill work and opportunities to practice new skills they learn during reading and writing exercises.
Over-modeling and under-challenging. Allow students to think and be challenged. Be supportive and correct mistakes but don’t do all the heavy lifting.
Providing books that are too easy or too difficult. Give students decodable texts they can practice with accuracy so they build confidence and control.
Lacking a scope and sequence. If you don’t know exactly what or when to teach phonics concepts to students, systematic instruction cannot be properly facilitated.

That said, if you’ve tried all you can but your child still struggles to grasp phonics at their expected level, reach out to their teachers or a literacy specialist.

Help Your Child Learn Phonics

When helping your child learn to read or make phonics stick, it’s important to have evidence-based resources to guide the instruction they receive.

At phonics.org, we provide teachers and parents with the phonics essentials kids need so they can become lifelong learners. If you’re passionate about phonics and literacy for kids, join the community at phonics.org.

A Guide to Teaching Letter Sounds Effectively

phonicsorg on February 14, 2024

Knowing the connection between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) is one of the first concepts your child will have to grasp as they begin their reading journey. Knowing which letters represent which sounds of speech (and vice versa) is crucial to overall literacy success.

What’s the best way to teach letter sounds and how can you help your child start learning the alphabet effectively? Discover some practical tips from phonics.org below.

How Children Learn the Sounds of the Alphabet

Before children can develop the phonics skills they need to read and learn on their own, they first need to implement the alphabetic principle. This principle is the knowledge of how individual letters and combinations of letters are used to represent sounds of spoken language.

This principle is most effectively taught when:

Instruction happens in a fun, positive environment
A structured, systematic approach is used
Children have developed some phonemic awareness skills
Letters are provided in context (in the classroom, at home, during play)
Each letter sound is taught in complete isolation (for example, <P> makes the /p/ sound, not /puh/.)
Letter-sound correspondences are practiced consistently with modeling, guidance, and feedback from educators

Some kids may pick up letter-sound correspondence quickly whereas others might benefit from a multisensory approach that suits their needs.

A common example of these learning differences is that some children might have an easier time learning sounds (i.e., ‘truck’ begins with the /t/ sound), while others may find it more natural to identify letters first and then learn their sounds (i.e., this is the letter <A> which makes the beginning sound of ‘apple’).

If your child leans toward one process over the other, start there! But remember to be consistent, review previously learned letters, and cover all letter sounds.

Beginner Phonics: Letter Sound Activities for Kids

Learning English alphabet sounds involves more than just flashcards and verbal repetition (although that can be part of it). Children learn best when they use multiple senses, activating different parts of the brain during literacy development.

Multisensory learning works well with letter-sound instruction. This involves sight, sound, and touch. Some activities may focus on one but often include multiple. All are important for the developmental process. Let’s cover some examples.

Tactile Activities to Teach Letter Sounds

Hands-on letter sound activities help your child engage in educational play using movement and touch, building a stronger awareness of the letters they’re learning. Here are some ideas.

Playdough letters: On a sheet of paper, outline a large, individual letter using paint or a thick marker. Tell your child what letter it is and ask them if they know what sound it makes. If not, show them and have them repeat. Give your child playdough to roll or squish with their hands and fill in the letter. While they fill in the letter, come up with words together that start with that letter sound.
Match items to their sounds: Arrange several toy letters on the floor. Grab a few of your child’s favorite items that begin with those letters and lay them out. Play a game with your child to see which items they can match to the corresponding letter sounds.
Finger tracing: Have your child trace a letter using their finger. This can be done using sand, finger paint, or on a touchscreen device.
Finger Cues: Use a simple, consistent finger cue in association with a single speech sound. Practice using the cue every time your child says the sound or sees the letter.

Playing tactile letter-sound activities that are fun and personal can help your child stay engaged.

Auditory Letter Sound Activities

Teaching alphabet sounds requires verbal and auditory games! Kids need to hear, repeat, and experiment with the language sounds of each letter.

“I Spy”: In addition to learning the names and sounds of letters in print, your child should practice matching letter sounds to items in real life. “I Spy” is a fun game that activates kids’ curiosity, imagination, and existing knowledge of the alphabet. Take turns using the “I Spy” prompt with your child. For example, say, “I Spy something that starts with the sound /f/.” Your child may identify things like fridge, flower, fork, etc.
Letter sound songs: Singing songs that help kids practice letter sounds is a classic and effective learning activity. The song Apples and Bananas is a popular example.
Words that share sounds: Share a letter and its sound with your child. See if they can come up with other words that begin with the same letter. For example, your word is ‘mat’. They can match the beginning /m/ sound with words like ‘mom,’ ‘milk,’ ‘mine,’ etc.
Articulation: Children learn to pronounce different sounds at different developmental ages. Showing your child how to make a specific sound accurately will help them associate that sound with a letter. Consult a speech language pathologist if you are concerned your child isn’t meeting developmental milestones with the pronunciation of speech sounds.

Verbal letter games can be played anywhere, any time. Make it fun and practice while at home, at the park, at the grocery store, and other everyday settings.

Visual Activities to Teach Letter-Sound Correspondence

Children learn to visually identify letters at their own pace. By kindergarten, some kids might know the entire alphabet while others are just beginning to learn the letters in their names. Either way, give these visual letter exercises a try.

Alphabet books: There are many children’s alphabet books that help you practice letter identification and letter sounds at home. Look into age-appropriate books that support your child’s skill level including Eating the Alphabet and Llama Llama ABC.
Name the letter: Use posters or flashcards to help your child review letters and their sounds. You can start with cards with uppercase/lowercase letters and related illustrations (like a honey bee on the card for the letter <B>). As your child learns more letter sounds, remove the illustration component and review the letters themselves.
Embedded Picture Mnemonics: Some evidence supports the integration of letters with a picture that begins with that word. For example, see the embedded picture mnemonics created by artist Cat MacInnes.

Practice visual letter identification and letter sounds together. This is called Paired-Associate Learning. Repetition helps your child remember what they’re learning and build confidence in what they already know! Remember to switch things up and practice multiple activities that involve their other senses.

More Activities to Teach Kids Phonics

There are many ways to help your child learn letter sounds as they lay a solid foundation for reading success. With evidence-based instruction methods, plenty of encouragement, and diverse learning opportunities, your child will grow into an empowered learner!

To discover more tips and interactive activities that support early readers, explore the resources at phonics.org.