Louise who runs Doncaster Mumbler has told us: “After many years working as a primary teacher and phonics specialist, I know that phonics is one area which can be confusing for parents and carers as it’s taught very differently nowadays to how it was when we were at school (if you can remember that far back!) and it can all seem a bit of a mystery.”
Phonics is a way of teaching children to read quickly and skilfully. They are taught how to:
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound in a word, for example ‘d’, ‘m’ or ‘or’. There are around 44 phonemes in the English language. You can see a chart of them here.
Grapheme
A grapheme is simply a way of writing down a phoneme. A grapheme can be one letter (m), two letters (ir), three letters (igh) or four letters (ough).
Grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs)
Knowing your GPCs means being able to see a grapheme (written down) and know what phoneme it relates to (being able to read it). It also means being able to hear a phoneme and know which grapheme to use to represent it – this is helpful for spelling.
Blending
Blending involves merging the sounds in a word together in order to pronounce it. For example, ‘j-a-m’ blended together reads the word ‘jam’.
Oral blending
This comes before word reading and is done purely through listening and repeating with no visuals.
Segmenting
Segmenting is the opposite of blending and involves breaking up a word into its sounds. This helps with spelling because if you know what graphemes represent the sounds in the word, you can write it! For example, the word ‘jam’ is segmented into the sounds ‘j-a-m’.
Digraph
A grapheme made up of two letters that makes one sound (e.g. sh in fish).
Split digraph
A digraph that is split between a consonant (‘a-e’ in ‘make’, ‘e-e’ in ‘these’, ‘i-e’ in ‘smile’, ‘o-e’ in ‘broke’, and ‘u-e’ in ‘flute’).
Trigraph
A grapheme made up of three letters that makes one sound (e.g. igh in high).
CVC words
An abbreviation for consonant-vowel-consonant. This is a simple way of indicating the order of the graphemes in words. For example, ‘cat’ is a CVC word because it has a consonant, then a vowel, then a consonant.
Sound buttons 
Sometimes referred to as ‘dots and dashes’, sound buttons are added underneath words to support reading. Dots represent single sounds and dashes are used to represent digraphs or trigraphs. Children learn to touch the sound button and say the sound to help them to sound it out and blend it.
There are a variety of different phonics schemes used by educational settings. The most popular include; Read, Write, Inc., Little Wandle, Bug Club, Letterland and Jolly Phonics. Different schemes teach sounds in slightly different orders but all start with single letter sounds (‘m’, ‘a’, ‘s’, etc.) and move towards digraphs (two letters one sound e.g. ‘ng’ and ‘ay’) and trigraphs (three letters one sound e.g. ‘igh and ‘ear’). The premise is the same across all schemes – children will learn a sound, then learn to read that sound within words.
It’s important that you find out which scheme your child’s setting uses and spend some time researching how the scheme works so that you are replicating the same teaching at home to avoid confusion.
Nonsense words, also known as pseudo or alien words, are an important tool in phonics teaching and learning but they tend to cause a lot of controversy! One of the most common questions I have been asked over the years is, ‘Why on earth are we teaching children to read made up words?!’ Let me explain…
When we teach a sound (for example, ‘ee’), we teach children to recognise the sound on its own and then be able to spot it in a word, sound out that word, and then blend it to read it. So, if a child is reading the word ‘green’, they will spot the sound (ee), sound out the word (g-r-ee-n) and blend the sounds together to read the word (green). Children will be taught to do this with a variety of real words containing the sound ‘ee’, such as ‘green’, ‘seen’, ‘been’, etc. But to ensure that a child is not simply memorising the words, we ask them to repeat this process with a variety of ‘nonsense’ words – essentially forcing them to follow the ‘spot the sound, sound out the word, and blend to read’ process. This means that we can be fully confident that a child knows a sound and can recognise and apply it in any word they come across.
This is vital for when they move into KS2 and beyond and begin to encounter more complex words when reading independently. For example, a word such as ‘entertainment’ can seem like a nonsense word at first if a child has never seen it written down before. Therefore, being able to spot the sounds ‘er’ and ‘ai’ and then being able to sound out the word and blend it equals reading success!
Also known as red words, sight words, or common exception words, tricky words are words which don’t follow standard phonetic spelling patterns and therefore children can’t use their phonic knowledge to help them to read or write them. They are taught to be recognised at a glance through repetition using flashcards and word games. Examples include; ‘said’, ‘was’ and ‘talk’. Your child’s school will be able to provide you with a list if you request it so that you can practise at home. YouTube has some excellent videos to help children to learn these words at home. Some good examples are:
The phonics screening check was launched in 2012. It is taken individually by all children in Year 1 in June. It’s designed to give teachers and parents/carers information on how a child is progressing in phonics. It is a very informal ‘test’ and your child will have had lots of practise in the months leading up to the screening check so it should feel familiar, comfortable and not at all stressful.
What does the phonics check look like?
There are two sections in the 40-word check; 20 real words and 20 nonsense words. You can take a look at an example check here. Children will be asked to sound out each word and blend to read it. It allows educators to see where a child is in their phonics journey and what phonics interventions will need to be put in place moving forward.
What will it check?
It will check that your child can:
These are included in the check specifically to assess whether your child can decode a word using phonics skills and not their memory. The pseudo words will be shown to your child with a picture of an alien and they will be asked to tell their teacher what sort of alien it is by reading the word.
Is there a pass mark?
The pass mark has been 32/40 since its launch but is subject to change. Remember, the check is not about ‘passing’ or ‘failing’ but checking that appropriate progress is being made. Children progress at different speeds so not reaching the threshold score does not necessarily mean there is a serious problem. Your child will re-sit the check the following summer term if they do not reach the threshold. If your child does not reach the threshold score at the end of Year 2, they will not be required to re-sit again, but intensive interventions will be put in place moving into KS2.
What happens to the results?
School will report your child’s results to you by the end of the summer term (usually via their end of year report), as well as to the local authority.
Reading at home
Your child will usually be sent home with a school reading book each week which should reflect their phonics level. It’s important that you allow at least ten minutes a day to read this together. Your child should be reading this book independently, whilst you are there as a support to prompt them to recognise sounds, sound out words, and blend. You can always re-read the story back to them afterwards (in fact, this is a great way to model expression and fluency). If you find that your child is really struggling to read their home reading book independently, speak to their teacher and let them know, as they are likely not on the correct book band. If your child is not yet able to sound out words independently, they will usually start on a wordless book. This is a way of encouraging your child to practise oral storytelling and learn about how stories work.
It’s also important to spend some time each day reading to your child. This will probably be a book that your child wouldn’t be able to access on their own and gives you the opportunity to expose them to more complex and exciting stories. Because, let’s face it – those school reading books are essential for learning to read but are usually pretty dull! Bedtime is the ideal time for this.
Apps
There are plenty of apps available to download which support phonics learning. My favourites are; Teach Your Monster to Read, Reading Eggs, Hairy Phonics, Meet the Alphablocks, and Read with Phonics. Some of these apps cost but are occasionally free to download so keep an eye out! If you have a Twinkl subscription (I do highly recommend as there are loads of resources, activities and games available to download), then Rhino Readers is also a great one.
Websites
There are also plenty of websites which offer games and resources:
Topmarks
Phonics Play
Family Learning
ICT Games
BBC Bitesize
Phonics Bloom
Phonics Family & 5 Minute Mum also have loads of great ideas for making phonics fun at home!
Phonics is such as complex journey and can be so tricky for children to get the hang of. My best advice is start as early as possible and make it fun.
Oral blending is an essential first step so incorporate it into everyday language. Is it time for a b-a-th, bath? Is that car ‘r-e-d, red? Can you touch your t-oe-s, toes? Modelling this oral blending early on means they are much more prepared when it comes to formal phonics learning at school.
Beginning to recognise graphemes (the sound written down) is also important and you can do this informally from a very young age. Write single-letter sounds on their ball pit balls and building blocks, play with magnetic letters, use foam letters in the bath, draw them in sand, write them with crayons, stick them on post-it notes all over the house, and refer to them whenever you can.
I highly recommend teaching letter sounds first, and not letter names, as it’s the sounds which will help with phonics (‘a’ as in ‘ant’ instead of ‘a’ as in ‘play’). You should also be using pure sounds when modelling a letter sound – this means pronouncing the sound clearly, without adding an extra sound on the end – ‘f’ instead of ‘fuh’. You can see the correct sound pronunciations in this You Tube Video here.
Firstly – don’t panic! All children learn to read at different rates and it takes some longer than others. They will all get there in their own time. Keep reading a fun activity and let them explore texts that they are interested in. Reading a Guinness World Records book, a graphic novel or a magazine is still allowing them to practise their reading skills.
Working closely with your child’s school, teacher and SENDCO is important. Speak to school about what interventions are in place for your child and how you can best support at home. Although phonics is generally agreed to be the best way to teach the majority of children how to read, some children do not find this method beneficial. It may be that your child better learns by memorising words or by using picture and context clues when they are reading.
It could be that there is an underlying learning issue. If you suspect that your child has dyslexia, it’s important that you speak to your child’s school. Appropriate assessments can be arranged and learning adaptations can be put in place to offer support. You can find information about dyslexia signs and diagnosis here. Also, make sure that your child has had an up-to-date sight test.
