There’s a lot to learn while starting school, from establishing friends to building confidence with letters and numbers. Children learn a lot via play, but reading skills are now taught methodically, beginning in nursery or reception class and continuing through their first years in primary school.
It can be challenging to figure out how to help support your child during the early stages of phonics. This is especially true since teaching methods may have changed significantly since you were in school.
Here are some guidelines to follow when teaching your child phonics.
How To Teach Phonics To Your Child
Teach them Letter Sounds
The links between the letters in written words and the sounds in spoken words are the focus of phonics training. As a result, the first step in teaching children phonics is introducing them to the basic alphabetic code. This is so that they may learn the most frequent sounds linked to each letter of the alphabet.
It’s critical to distinguish between letter sounds and letter names. Using letter names during early phonics training should be avoided. That’s because memorizing letter names doesn’t truly help a child learn to read, and utilizing letter names may even hinder early efforts at spelling.
Digraphs
After learning individual letter sounds, students will begin learning to read and write digraphs. They will study consonant digraphs like ch, sh, and ng and vowel digraphs like ea, oo, and ai.
They will then move on to sounding out full words such as a chair, book, shin, and so on. Along with this, youngsters should be taught uncommon words. These popular words do not adhere to standard phonological principles, such as he, she, was, and they.
Showing your youngster a printed alphabet card and digraphs, then saying the letter sound numerous times, is the easiest way to start decoding. After you’ve uttered the letter sound two or three times, have them repeat it. You also need to make sure your child remembers the right letters when you say a sound.
If they cannot write the letters, have them choose the proper letter from a selection of alphabet cards.
Blending
Blending is learning how the sounds represented by letters blend to produce words. When a youngster has mastered the fundamentals of blending, they can read simple words.
A similar procedure that helps students spell words is segmenting. Learning to spell and read using phonics simultaneously is beneficial since the two abilities reinforce one another. Once children have mastered the fundamentals, they should be able to read and write dozens of simple words.
Whatever blend you choose, it is easier if your child concentrates on one word at a time. If multiple words are on a page, their focus may readily shift from one to the next. So, on a piece of paper or a mini-whiteboard, write a single word, or make a word with magnetic letters.
Word Blending and Segmentation Using Simple Digraphs
Here you will combine the 3 methods mentioned above. Children are eventually introduced to increasingly complicated words through rigorous phonics education. Once a youngster can reliably read basic two and three-letter words, they can be exposed to words with pairs of identical consonants.
Because letter pairings frequently express the same sound as individual letters, pairs of identical consonants are the easiest digraphs to learn.
Children must be taught that two letters can occasionally represent the same sound.
Different Graphemes
Once your kids are comfortable with the above, they will begin to learn other graphemes. They will discover that different graphemes can represent the same sound. It is critical to read to your child. While learning phonics, your kid must continue to listen to and, more importantly, enjoy stories.
Ask your child to read one phrase on every page when you’re reading aloud. They will love deciphering new words using their phonics abilities.
Accuracy And Fluency
By this time, children should be able to read many known words and sound out unfamiliar words automatically. They should be able to spell words accurately, although not necessarily phonetically. The goal of the program is to help youngsters become more proficient readers and spellers. Prefixes, suffixes, and silent letters are among the most sophisticated spelling rules that children will learn.
They should continue to read regularly to improve their speed, fluency, and understanding. You will need to be patient with your child because they will have many slip-ups.
It will almost feel like you are starting from scratch every day. However, don’t worry, children will catch on eventually and it becomes a part of their core memory. Therefore, make sure it’s an enjoyable experience for them!
Originally posted 2022-11-29 05:19:24.