How can you help your child
learn via phonics?
One of the main objections to phonics is that English doesn’t
always play by the rules of phonics.
We’ve all be caught out by words that aren’t pronounced the way
they look, and we all know about the way that one letter can have multiple sounds (look at the y in
yet, my and rugby),
and that one sound can have multiple spellings (think of the long e sound in been, mean, scene, yield, ceiling rugby).
However, 75% of English words do play by the rules.
One of the problems for children learning to read is that a lot of the words they want to learn how to
make and to read are exceptions.
Think of “was” and “the”, for example. Problems also crop up if a child’s name doesn’t play by the
rules of phonics.
It’s important to learn how to read your name early on. This is all very well if your name is Jill, Max, Sam,
Anna, Jack or Emma.
So a little bit of look-and-say word learning of the whole
language type is needed just to make it easier for a beginner
reader to be able to use reading and writing.
How can you help your child learn via phonics?
The following tips might help:
• When you read with your child and you come across a word that they should be able to sound out, stop reading and ask him/her to work it out.
• Make a moveable alphabet for use at home. This doesn’t have to be as fancy as the sandpaper letters seen in a Montessori classroom.
• When you’re out and about, spot letters printed on signs and see if you can find words that your child can read in your environment.
• Play I Spy, which reinforces the link between sounds and letters. If you spy something beginning with D, all the names of the things suggested will start with that D sound – dog, Dad, doughnut, daffodil…
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