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How the Brain Learns to Read

phonicsorg on April 26, 2024

Reading is an advanced skill and a relatively new phenomenon among humans. While literacy is a crucial ability a child must develop to obtain knowledge and navigate society, it doesn’t come easily to many children. The process of how the brain learns to read is complex and often misunderstood.

To many people’s surprise, the ability to read is not primarily about visual processing. Rather, it’s a phonological (sound)-based process that requires the brain to make connections between speech and orthography (printed letters).

An understanding of reading and the brain impacts how educators teach phonics. Today, specific evidence-based strategies equip children to learn how to read more effectively. In this article, we explore some of the fascinating science behind reading acquisition and present several practical ways you can nurture strong readers.

The Science of Reading and How It Works in the Brain

Reading is not innate or hardwired in humans like spoken language is. While people can acquire spoken language naturally, they generally need explicit instruction in learning to read.

Why Phonics is Vital to Reading Development

Phonics plays a leading role in reading education. It teaches children the relationships between alphabetical letters and the sounds in language. This foundational skill allows children to decode unfamiliar words by blending individual sounds together.

Neuroscientists Mark Seidenberg and Stanislas Dehaene have made groundbreaking discoveries about how the brain learns to read. Seidenberg, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, extensively studied the neural mechanisms involved in reading acquisition. Dehaene, a professor at the Collège de France, conducted influential research using brain imaging techniques to understand the brain’s reading circuitry.

Through their work on the cognitive science of reading, they discovered the importance of how phonics is taught—particularly involving the brain’s phonological pathway.

The Phonological Pathway

According to Seidenberg and Dehaene’s research, a large portion of the brain’s ability to read is due to the phonological pathway. Seidenberg (2017) says that the importance of the phonological pathway in beginning reading, “is about as close to conclusive as research on human behavior can get.” This phonological pathway allows the brain to convert letters in print into verbal language by linking the visual symbols (letters) to their associated sounds. Then, the sounds of those letters can be blended into words.

Neuroimaging studies by Dehaene have revealed that a specific region in the brain’s left occipitotemporal cortex (the orthographic processor), dubbed the “visual word form area,” becomes specialized for this mapping process as children learn to read. This area connects visual inputs (alphabetical letters) to the brain’s language systems, enabling the conversion of written words into spoken language.

In contrast, the brain’s visual pathway relies on recognizing words as whole units or shapes. The visual pathway plays a secondary role in reading. While this pathway can be useful for quickly recognizing a limited number of familiar words, it’s inefficient for children learning to read new words. Early readers heavily rely on decoding to make sense of new or unfamiliar words, which requires first breaking them down into their sound components.

The phonological pathway is crucial for developing skilled reading abilities. Children who struggle to map letters to sounds and blend those sounds often experience significant reading difficulties.

Limitations of Visual Cues in Reading

Today, we know that the brain learns to read through the connection between the phonological pathway with the visual pathway. However, many traditional reading instructional methods have relied heavily on visual strategies, such as memorizing whole words or focusing on word patterns.

Since the science of reading has advanced in recent decades, experts now know that these visual approaches are limited. They can hinder the development of proficient reading skills.

One study by Seidenberg observed the effectiveness of different reading instruction methods. They found that children who received explicit, systematic phonics instruction outperformed those who were taught using a whole-word or visual-based approach. Explicit instruction noticeably improved kids’ ability to decode new words accurately—especially for children with specific learning disorders such as dyslexia.

Dehaene (2011) adds to this concept by explaining that the brain can identify words so quickly it creates the illusion of whole-word reading. However, “all the evidence to date suggests that visual words are being analyzed into their elementary components before the whole word can be put back together and recognized,” he stated. “This decomposition is so fast, parallel, and efficient as to seem almost instantaneous.”

Your Role in Children’s Reading Development

Whether you’re a teacher or a parent, you play a significant role in how your child’s brain learns to read. While the science behind reading development can be complex, having a basic understanding can support decisions for your child’s learning. Here are some practices to incorporate.

Explicit, Systematic Phonics

Providing systematic and explicit phonics instruction is important for teaching word-reading. This type of instruction prioritizes letter-sound relationships. It provides opportunities for children to practice blending sounds into words and segment words into individual sounds, rather than trying to memorize whole words visually.

Be Critical of Reading Programs

The idea that reading instruction should limit phonics and rely on visual memorization is still pervasive in education. Teachers and parents must take a critical look at reading programs to see if systematic phonics instruction is a dominant component. It should be suitable for beginner reading instruction.

Reading Aloud

Reading aloud to children and engaging in dialogic reading (where the child is actively involved in discussing the story) can foster language development and phonological awareness. Seidenberg (2017) says that the “most significant reading-related activity for young children is still being read to.” However, reading to children will not guarantee they will become readers. Systematic guidance is still necessary.

Playful Activities

Activities like rhyming games, identifying the initial sounds in words, and clapping out syllables can further enhance children’s sensitivity to the sound structure of language. Phonological awareness activities like this have been shown to help children develop stronger reading skills.

Start Early

Ideally, these strategies should be introduced early and consistently in a child’s life. High-quality phonics instruction is a key predictor of later reading success.

Help Kids Learn to Read: Phonics.org

Neuroscience proves the brain learns to read primarily through a phonological, sound-based process that maps written letters to their corresponding language sounds. This understanding underscores the importance of evidence-based, phonics-focused reading instruction that aligns with the brain’s process of literacy development.

By prioritizing systematic phonics instruction and activities that build phonological awareness, educators and parents can lay a strong foundation for their children to become confident readers.

Explore more resources at Phonics.org to learn about implementing these effective, science-backed strategies in your classroom or home!

Types of Phoneme Blending for Early Readers

phonicsorg on April 18, 2024

One of the most crucial skills for kids learning to read is learning how to blend phonemes. This is a foundational skill that not only relates to spoken language but also the ability to decode and comprehend words in text.

Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up spoken language. In English, there are 44 blendable phoneme units out of the 26 letters of the alphabet. For students to begin blending sounds into words, they first need an understanding of letter-sound correspondences.

When a child knows some letter-sound correspondences, it’s time to introduce blending! To help your new reader make sense of words in print, here are several types of phoneme blending techniques to consider.

Segmented Blending

One well-known form of phoneme blending taught during phonics instruction is called segmented phonation, also known as final blending. This is when children read a word by sounding out each letter sound from left to right. There is typically a pause between each sound. The sounds are blended together at the end of the word.

Here’s what segmented blending would look like in practice.

You’re helping a child blend the word, ‘sit.’

The child sounds out each letter individually and pauses between each sound:

/s/ (pause) /i/ (pause) /t/

Then, the reader brings the letter sounds closer together: /s/ /i/ /t/.

The three sounds are held in the child’s memory and blended or put together at the end of the word.

Continuous Blending

Continuous blending—also known as connected phonation—is the most straightforward type of phoneme blending. It works by blending letter sounds smoothly and continuously without stopping in between sounds, as you would with segmented phonation reviewed above.

Here is how a child can practice continuous blending:

The child is reading the word ‘ran.’

They sound out each letter sound slowly, continuously, and smoothly:

/rrrr/ /aaaa/ /nnnn/

Sometimes the child may need to repeat the process with an increased pace. Typically, immediately after continuous blending, the child can understand the word: ‘ran.’ Continuous blending is known to be an easier form of phoneme blending for kids, as it’s closer to how humans naturally speak. In comparison, segmented blending requires more working memory of phoneme sounds, making it more challenging for some kids.

This type of phoneme blending is typically first introduced with letters that make continuous sounds. These are sounds that can be held longer like /mmmm/ or /ssss/. Some phonemes are ‘stops’ that can’t be elongated like /p/ or /g/. It is difficult to use continuous blending when those sounds appear at the beginning of a word. Phonemes that work best for introductory continuous blending include /m/, /n/, /s/, /l/, /f/, /r/, /v/, and /z/.

Successive Blending (Additive Blending)

Successive or “additive” blending is a slightly different approach to blending. Instead of sounding out a word all the way through, letter by letter and then repeating the whole word, successive blending repeats each blended portion of the word before the following letter is sounded out.

Here’s how it’s practiced:

The child is sounding out the word ‘slip.’

First, start with /s/.

Then, restart from the beginning of the word to sound out /s/ and /l/ together to make ‘sl’.

Next, go back and repeat ‘sl’ while adding /i/ to the end: ‘sli’.

Finally, formulate the whole word by saying ‘sli’ once again and adding /p/. You then say the whole word, ‘slip.’

This method particularly helps struggling readers who have difficulty retaining which sounds they sound out during blending. It helps them remember and integrate all of the sounds in a word, instead of getting lost in the middle or the end of the word and forgetting what they sounded out.

Onset and Rime Blending

Onset and rime (also called onset-rime) blending separates words into its onset (the beginning consonant or consonant blend) and rimes (the vowel plus any other remaining consonants in the word). In this approach, readers sound out the onset and then blend it into the rime.

For example:

To blend the word ‘can,’ the reader first sounds out the onset /c/ and then the rime /an/.

Then, they blend them together: /c/ + /an/… ‘can.’

The onset-rime blending method is ideally used as a supplementary practice to phoneme blending, not the main approach.

Onset-rime blending can be confusing. It might give early readers the impression that words are made up of smaller word sections when really words are made up of individual sounds (phonemes) strung together.

For example, imagine a child is learning to read the word ‘right.’ The onset /r/ plus the rime /ight/ involves more complex phonics rules that some children would struggle to discern with this method. Additionally, there are more than 300 rimes (also known as word families) in the English language. It would take much more cognitive effort to memorize these rimes than to blend individual sounds.

In many cases during onset-rime, the initial consonant spoken by itself sounds distorted or is spoken with an added schwa sound. The phoneme for the letter <d>, for example, should not be pronounced ‘duh’ as it could distort the rime that follows. You wouldn’t say, ‘duh-im’ for the word ‘dim,’ but a child is likely to make this mistake when using the onset-rime method.

Body-Coda Blending

Another type of phoneme blending that involves separating words into segments is called body-coda. First, readers sound out the body (the consonant and vowel) and then the coda (the final consonant or consonant blend). It’s the reverse of onset-rime.

For example:

When blending the word ‘cat,’ the reader sounds out the body of the word ‘ca’ and then the coda /t/.

Then, they blend them: /ca/ + /t/… ‘cat.’

The body-coda method is often easier than the onset-rime method. If children can practice the beginning consonant, they can use continuous blending to finish reading the word—for example: ‘caaaaa-t.’ Because vowels are always continuous sounds, the body-coda method helps kids overcome and automate the difficult part of blending, which is knowing how to put a “stop” sound (consonant) with a vowel sound together.

Just like onset-rime, the body-coda blending method can reinforce the concept of “word chunks” rather than the importance of actual phonemes. Therefore, it should also be a supporting technique and not the initial or primary one.

Best Ways to Teach Phonics to Early Readers

Blending is an essential phonics skill for children learning to read. While there are several types of blending practices to introduce in phonics instruction, several methods have been shown to work better than others.

Continuous blending is the most effective type of phoneme blending as it is most similar to how we naturally speak words. Segmented blending is also a reliable method for many children learning how to read, although it may be difficult for students who struggle with working memory.

For more tips and information on teaching phonics effectively to kids, read more insights from phonics.org.

The Different Types of Phonics Instruction

phonicsorg on April 12, 2024

Teaching children how to read is a crucial and sometimes complicated process. Phonics instruction becomes the foundation of reading, so taking an effective and proven approach is required if kids are to grasp these essential skills.

If proper instruction is so important, why are there different types of phonics in English education? Which method works best for teaching kids to read?

Let’s look at the four main types of phonics instruction, the relationship each one has with reading, and how effective they are. Whether you’re a teacher of a classroom or a parent wanting to help your early reader, knowing these methods can help you make informed decisions about which phonics program to use as your child develops literacy skills.

Synthetic Phonics

Synthetic phonics focuses on alphabetical letters (graphemes) and their correspondence to phonemes (individual sounds of spoken language). It is the ‘synthesis’ or combination of individual letter sounds to decode words.

The most effective method of using synthetic phonics is with an explicit and direct approach to teaching.

Here’s how it works:

Students learn individual letter sounds (/a/ for ‘apple,’ /b/ for ‘bin,’ etc.)
They then learn how to blend letter sounds together (/b/ /i/ /n/ = ‘bin’)
Reading instruction is systematic, meaning children learn the simplest concepts first and then progress toward more complex ones. This motivates the mastery of buildable skills.
Readers learn to rely on decoding to read new, unfamiliar words they encounter in text.

Decades of scientific studies point to the reliability of synthetic phonics instruction. Because reading is a skill that doesn’t come naturally to humans, it must be taught with clear, systematic instruction and lots of practice.

Synthetic phonics has also become the most effective and recommended method of teaching phonics to children diagnosed with or at risk of reading difficulties. Extensive brain research has found that this structured, synthetic method helps kids develop strong reading foundations.

Analytic Phonics

The analytic phonics approach uses the “analysis” of text. It teaches children to associate letter sounds with whole words. Typically, it involves a lot of recognition as well as breaking down familiar words into smaller parts.

For example, students learn whole words such as ‘mat.’ They then learn to identify individual sounds within the word and the alphabetical letters they represent. Instruction also involves pointing out similarities and patterns across words.

Analytic phonics can be useful in some cases but it’s typically not as structured as a systematic teaching method. With the lack of foundation, children might struggle with this method—especially if they have a learning or reading disability.

Analogy Phonics

Analogy phonics is a subtype of analytic phonics. It focuses on identifying patterns and “analogies” of words.

Children learn word families that share letter-sound correspondences, such as ‘cat,’ ‘mat,’ ‘rat,’ ‘hat,’ and ‘sat.’ All of these words contain the ending /-at/. Students are expected to use prior knowledge of a similar word (such as ‘cat’) to make sense of patterns and then interpret new, related words.

While analogy phonics can supplement more systematic methods of phonics instruction, it’s no longer recommended for educational settings.

Embedded Phonics

Embedded phonics is the opposite of explicit phonics, in which case students learn to read words through contextual, implicit reading.

Typically, teachers provide whole texts to students and then use the material to teach specific concepts—whether it be letter-sound correspondences, spelling patterns, or word families.

Through embedded phonics (also known as incidental phonics), phonics instruction occurs on an “as-needed” basis. Instead of preparing children with a strong foundation of explicit, systematic concepts so they can practice decoding new texts, students learn concepts “as they arise” in the text they’re provided. Through this, students often have to rely on contextual letter recognition and memorization of sight words since the provided literature dictates which letter-sound relationships are practiced (often randomly).

Today, embedded phonics is widely known as an ineffective instruction method because it involves a lot of guesswork. Although it can be a useful exercise to expose readers to real-world, connected texts, it cannot replace the instruction needed to develop a reading foundation based on the science of reading.

Taking a Systematic Approach to Phonics Instruction

A systematic approach to phonics instruction has been proven to be the most reliable method because:

Emphasis is on decoding as soon as children begin learning to read, equipping them to figure out new words without relying on context or guesswork.
Reading specialists use synthetic instruction to help students with specific learning disabilities (such as dyslexia) learn to read.
The use of structured, progressive skill-building enables students to master the simplest skills first and gradually work their way up to the most complex.
It is the method that most aligns with how the brain learns to read.

Overall, the other types of phonics—analogy, analytic, and embedded—should not be the primary method of instruction. They often lead to confusion for many children unless there is a synthetic and explicit foundation provided first.

Which Type of Phonics is Best for Teaching Kids to Read?

The goal of phonics instruction is to equip students with the strongest foundation of skills for lifelong reading. Although different types of phonics have been used (and are still used) in specific scenarios, there is an abundance of modern research proving systematic, synthetic phonics works for most children.

Children must learn how to decode words and gradually progress onto more complex skills, eventually building strong reading proficiency. Other types of phonics such as analytic or analogy methods are most useful as a supplemental approach, with synthetic phonics taking the lead.

To learn more about phonics instruction, reading science, and literacy development, explore the resources at Phonics.org. We review synthetic phonics programs and provide educators and parents with honest ratings to see which one works best for young readers.

Orthographic Mapping and Sight Words: Developing Reading Fluency

phonicsorg on April 5, 2024

Skillful readers can read words effortlessly and automatically with full comprehension. This process often seems impossible to kids as they begin to learn basic phonics skills—how do adults read so easily, without trying? The answer is that there’s a crucial process involved that develops this reading fluency over time. This process is called orthographic mapping.

Essentially, orthographic mapping is the necessary bridge students cross from sounding out single words using lots of effort to automatic word recognition. Reading researcher Linnea Ehri coined this term.

In this article, we discuss what orthographic mapping is, how it works, and ways you can improve this process to encourage students to become fluent, confident readers.

What is Orthographic Mapping?

In simple terms, orthographic mapping is a process where words are decoded until automatically recognized. This skill develops over time. It happens when a reader permanently stores a word they’ve already learned and can retrieve it instantly from memory when they come across it.

When a reader decodes (sounds out) an unfamiliar word, they connect the word’s letters to corresponding sounds, blending them to formulate the word. For example, the word ‘bat’ is decoded by blending the sounds /b/ /a/ /t/. Every time the reader successfully maps the same word again, it’s committed to memory. Eventually, the reader no longer has to sound it out completely from scratch. Instead, they retrieve the word mapped during previous readings.

Even though orthographic mapping involves remembering, it’s not the same thing as rote memorization of whole, unfamiliar words. With whole-word memorization, readers associate the visual representation of a word directly with its meaning. This bypasses any mapping of letters to sounds.

While some high-frequency words may initially be visually memorized this way, orthographic mapping through proven phonics instruction is what allows readers to build their sight word vocabularies long-term.

How Orthographic Mapping Works

To turn an unfamiliar, printed word into a remembered word, children must form permanent connections between a word’s letters, its pronunciation, and its meaning in memory. Here’s how it works.

Letter-Sound Correspondences

The foundation of orthographic mapping is decoding. A beginner reader must first learn how individual letters and letter patterns represent the sounds in spoken words. These skills should be mastered for easy recall.

Decoding and Encoding

The practice of blending letter-sound correspondences to identify unfamiliar words in print is called decoding. Encoding is the ability to spell words by breaking up a word (segmenting) into its sounds. Practice with decoding and encoding is part of the process of orthographic mapping. Each time a reader sounds out or spells a word, they are mapping its written form and its spoken form.

Repetitive Mapping

Successful orthographic mapping requires repeated practice. The first few times readers decode a new word, the mapping can be forgotten quickly. But with repeated mapping of a word’s spelling to its pronunciation, the connection gradually builds a strong representation in the reader’s long-term memory. The number of repetitions that will be necessary depends on the individual profile of the child. Some children will need many more repetitions of decoding and encoding than others.

Connect to Meaning

Once a new reader has successfully decoded a word, it is important to connect this word to its meaning. This helps new readers remember words more quickly. Building vocabulary knowledge also improves reading comprehension.

Building Sight Word Vocabulary

Successful repetition of decoding gradually results in sight word knowledge. Sight words develop when a word has been mapped so many times that it can be instantly recalled. The reader recognizes the word as a familiar unit rather than consciously decoding the individual letters.

Skilled readers have robust mappings for between 30,000-90,000 words in their vocabulary, allowing them to read quickly without having to stop and analyze every letter. Additionally, decoding and mapping are lifelong skills. Even highly literate adults learn new words that they haven’t orthographically mapped yet, pausing upon a new, complex word to sound it out and learn its meaning.

Orthographic Mapping vs. Rote Memorization

While orthographic mapping and sight word mastery rely on memory, the process is different from rote visual memorization. Relying on memorization to build a sight vocabulary is problematic for several reasons:

How the brain works: Words and images are processed differently in human brains. Learning to read by sounding out is more efficient and effective than learning to read by visually memorizing words. A great deal of scientific research has demonstrated that we do not remember words based on visual memory.
Reading new words: Rote memorization teaches words as unanalyzed wholes, ultimately discouraging readers from developing the decoding skills they need for lifelong learning. It is impossible to visually memorize all words needed for foundational reading ability and comprehension. Decoding skills help readers figure out new words they haven’t previously memorized.
Difficulty memorizing longer words: Memorizing words by visual shape is difficult to apply to longer, more complex words. Additionally, human memory can only memorize so many entire word shapes, preventing students from advancing their full vocabulary.

Orthographic mapping avoids these pitfalls by accurately linking spellings to pronunciations through phonics practice. Words are mapped, not traced like pictures. This lays the groundwork for an expansive, efficiently-acquired sight vocabulary.

Orthographic Mapping Strategies for Reading Instruction

Understanding orthographic mapping is crucial for educators and parents who are helping kids learn to read. With a knowledge of what it is and how it works, you can implement supportive strategies to help kids become stronger readers.

Systematic Phonics Instruction

Since orthographic mapping stands on solid phonics skills, beginners’ reading instruction typically involves explicit, systematic phonics lessons. Students must learn to proficiently decode words, which explicit instruction provides.

Guided Practice

Building up skillful readers doesn’t stop at teaching. Students must be given many practice opportunities to apply these skills and develop automatic word-reading abilities. Repeated, successful mappings are required for orthographic representations to become firmly set.

Decodable Texts

To facilitate this essential mapping practice, students benefit from reading decodable texts containing a high number of words following the phonics patterns they have learned. Texts should be readable for the child’s skill level, with only a few unknown words to allow for productive challenge.

Assessment and Progress Monitoring

Students’ reading progress and behavior must be monitored so you can discern whether they are actively mapping spellings to pronunciations, rather than guessing words from context. The key to this is using a phonics survey or inventory that breaks down the phonics skills by type and uses nonwords to determine if a child can read a new word they haven’t seen before.

Resources for Orthographic Mapping and Other Phonics Skills

Orthographic mapping is an important bridge that allows beginning readers to turn their hardworking attempts at decoding into automatic sight word recognition. While rote memorization alone provides an inefficient shortcut, orthographic mapping through systematic phonics practice helps children build a solid foundation for long-term reading development.

Equipping students with this mapping ability is key to helping them become fluent, skilled readers. To learn more about similar strategies and evidence-based phonics instruction, visit Phonics.org.

Common Phonics Mistakes to Avoid When Teaching

phonicsorg on March 15, 2024

Ahhh, phonics instruction. It’s such a special experience in a child’s education! Helping kids learn how to read and write is fascinating, rewarding, and developmentally necessary.

Unless it’s not.

If you’ve been trying to help your child or student(s) learn phonics but aren’t seeing reasonable progress, you may need to rethink some of the methods being used.

Nobody’s perfect. There’s always room for improvement, whether it be for students, teachers, or parents. However, several common phonics mistakes in teaching can result in ineffective (and sometimes, detrimental) learning outcomes.

Here are the mistakes to avoid so you can pivot your approach and equip your students with the literacy skills they deserve.

Neglecting Decoding

It used to be common practice in phonics to take a “top-down” approach, beginning with whole words and breaking them down. Some instruction methods today still focus on similar methods. Those involving memorization of whole words or sight words neglect the process of decoding (sounding out words using letter-sound knowledge). Plus, these top-down methods push students to guess words they don’t know, which comes with a whole other set of problems.

Decoding is the most practical and effective skill to teach early readers because it gives them a way to tackle unfamiliar words on their own while still welcoming guidance from parents and teachers. It builds confidence and provides an avenue to overcome new challenges as the child learns phonics.

Reading decodable books is one way that students can put their budding phonics skills to practice. These are books that follow concepts the child has been taught so far. Students can typically read decodable books with great accuracy and then move on to a more advanced book as they grasp new concepts.

Once decoding skills become quick and automatic, students can move onto reading phrases or short sentences. This movement from words to sentences builds fluency and confidence as kids advance from decoding words to sentences, and then whole passages.

Ignoring Vocabulary

Phonics instruction should always be connected with meaning. While children are learning to decode, always discuss the meaning of the words they are reading. Connecting words to meaning while decoding helps with memory and builds language comprehension skills.

It makes sense why: children can’t comprehend the text if they don’t know how to decode the words. At the same time, expanding their vocabulary has also been shown to improve reading development.

Introduce vocabulary words to your child or student so that when they decode new words in print, they’ll be able to successfully comprehend what they’re reading.

Advanced Phonemic Awareness Training

Some phonemic awareness skills, like segmenting and blending, are crucial in learning to read and spell. Several reading programs advise spending a great deal of time on building phonemic awareness skills. Sometimes this instruction is entirely oral and does not use written letters (graphemes).

A recent (2021) study found that “At present, recommendations to spend instructional time on advanced phonemic awareness training outside of print, or that students should develop “phonemic proficiency” to become proficient readers, are not evidence-based” (p. 31).

Focusing on important phonemic awareness skills such as segmenting and blending to spell and read words is advisable. This instruction is better when paired with letters (graphemes).

Lacking Consistent Review of Previous Instruction

If your instruction follows a scope and sequence, great job. To achieve mastery, students need to constantly go back and practice the skills they’ve already learned. You can’t just teach new skills and then move on.

Create opportunities for kids to practice the concepts they’re learning, being careful not to present a rule and then never bring it up again. Use lessons that contain the smallest concept (such as -at endings, -ack endings, or both) and scaffold them into more challenging words or even sentences if the child is at that level.

Repeated review gives students a chance to strengthen the main skills they’re focused on learning but also recall the simpler skills they learned previously.

Failing to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiation is crucial for many students, especially struggling readers or children with learning disabilities. While proven phonics strategies are effective for a majority of learners, not all kids obtain the required skills through standard lessons.

Parents and instructors can seek differentiated instruction to address a child’s learning needs. There are several ways to intervene and/or accommodate a student (or group of students) who may be struggling with phonics so they can still become successful readers. Options include multisensory learning, adapting how a lesson is taught, extending timed tests, or providing one-on-one support.

Following a Phonics Curriculum That Isn’t Explicit or Systematic

Most kids can’t learn to read on their own. The extensive science of reading has proven this. Students need explicit instruction—especially when developing fundamental literacy skills.

Avoid a type of phonics instruction that:

Requires rote memorization of whole words
Encourages guessing strategies via context cues (i.e. look at the picture to guess the word)
Fails to prioritize decoding skills
Disregards phonemic awareness practice
Relies heavily on sight words
Lacks consistent, effective instruction
Resists differentiated instruction options for struggling students

There are multiple approaches to teaching phonics, several of which can supplement students’ learning when used appropriately. But to instruct phonics in a way that most children can master, teaching must be systematic (following a sequential, logical order) and explicit (providing direct rules, explanations, and guided applications).

Phonics is complex. So, if this list of mistakes to avoid during instruction seems overwhelming, it’s because it can be!

That’s why we’re here.

To find more credible insights related to phonics and literacy development, explore the resources from phonics.org.

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.

Why Explicit Phonics Instruction is So Important

phonicsorg on March 6, 2024

Explicit phonics instruction is vital to literacy development, especially when it’s time for kids to begin reading. With the variety of phonics instruction methods and opinions in education today, it’s important to understand what works and why.

Let’s start by acknowledging the reality that children learn at different rates. Some students quickly adopt the skills they need to become readers; others require thorough instruction, effort, and repetition to grasp basic concepts and skills.

Explicit instruction has proven to help even the most struggling readers. Let’s look at why explicit instruction is so important for all learners!

The Most Effective Method of Phonics Instruction

According to the science of reading, effective phonics education must be two things: systematic and explicit.

Systematic

Whether a child grasps reading concepts earlier than the rest of their class or struggles with literacy development due to a specific learning disorder, systematic teaching serves a crucial purpose.

Systematic instruction works by guiding students through a step-by-step process. You begin with the simplest, most foundational concepts and build upon them sequentially up until the most complex.

In the same way you wouldn’t build a bridge without a carefully planned blueprint, thorough site preparation, and solid foundation, you can’t expect a child to read without first teaching them the core principles one after the next.

Explicit

Effective phonics instruction must be explicit. This means that teachers provide direct, structured, consistent teaching through modeling and examples, ensuring students comprehend the material before moving forward.

Also known as direct phonics instruction, explicit teaching follows a clear scope and sequence, meaning you have a framework of what to teach (scope) and when to teach it (sequence).

Explicit instruction is intentional, evidence-based, and practical. For example, an explicit, systematic phonics approach teaches similar letters together, focuses on short vowel sounds first, and introduces consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

Imagine throwing a child into the deep end of a pool. You would first need to help them prepare so they don’t drown! First, are they comfortable entering the water? Have you distinguished the shallow side versus the deep areas of the pool? Can they float? Have you taught them how to swim? The same analogy applies to reading and phonics. Explicit, supportive, and demonstrative instruction prepares kids with the knowledge and skills they must practice with a teacher until they can do it on their own.

Explicit, Systematic Phonics Instruction Meets Individual Learning Needs

Children who have difficulty with learning certain concepts may need an adapted approach. For early readers, adaptive teaching still uses the systematic, explicit method but may require:

A greater number of repetitions when learning a new skill (for example, some children learn a letter sound after only a few practices; others need hundreds of repetitions)
A different setting, such as learning in a group of readers at a similar level instead of learning surrounded by more advanced classmates
Further one-on-one teaching with a specialist in addition to classroom instruction

Assessing a Reader’s Strengths and Weaknesses

To teach phonics in a way that meets a child’s learning needs, you first need to know where they’re at in the developmental process. This not only identifies areas of weakness but also informs you of the child’s current capabilities and strengths.

Reading assessments provide information about a person’s reading skills and progress, as well as what instruction they need most. Assessments cover the core reading concepts including:

Letter knowledge
Phonemic awareness
Decoding
Fluency
Comprehension

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) is a common reading assessment in education today. It’s reliable, research-based, and free to access.

A quality phonics assessment typically includes a child’s ability to read “nonwords.” These are simple words that aren’t in the English language but can still be sounded out at appropriate reading levels; for example: ‘noz,’ ‘taf,’ and ‘voth.’ Nonwords allow educators and specialists to differentiate between words a child has memorized and what the child does when trying to read a new, unfamiliar word.

Once educators assess and understand a child’s reading abilities, they can facilitate progress through a direct phonics instruction approach.

Using the Response to Intervention Model in Reading Education

When students are at risk of failing to learn crucial literacy skills, parents or teachers often arrange a reading intervention. Sometimes schools use a Response to Intervention (RTI) model to determine the intensity and duration of a child’s reading intervention. This RTI model has three tiers:

Tier 1: A whole-class instruction that all students receive.
Tier 2: Some students who aren’t making progress from whole-class instruction may need additional small group instruction to catch up to their peers.
Tier 3: Children in need of the most intensive reading instruction require ongoing one-on-one support with specific interventions to help them improve their literacy skills.

In all instances of Response to Intervention, instructors and specialists use explicit, systematic teaching methods. By focusing on the most basic skills a child needs to learn and then building upon that structure, RTI programs can successfully help children learn to read.

Explicit Phonics Instruction: The Key to Lifelong Literacy

No matter a child’s current reading level, they deserve the literacy skills they need to become learners for life. These skills are set in stone thanks to direct phonics instruction.

At phonics.org, we provide teachers and parents with the resources they need to help kids become empowered, literate individuals. With nearly 67% of U.S. fourth graders currently reading below their grade level, explicit instruction must be adopted early to prevent this statistic from growing.

We’re here to make sure every child has the phonics essentials they need to succeed. To join the effort in raising strong readers and writers, reach out to us today.

Additional Resources:

Explicit Instruction (Dr. Anita Archer): A book that informs teachers about effective instruction for special needs learners.

DIBELS Tests for K-3: Standardized individual assessments for early literacy students.

At a Loss for Words (AMP Reports): A thorough exploration of effective vs. ineffective reading instruction, including examples of student outcomes and various observations from teachers.

10 Tricky Phonics Rules to Understand

phonicsorg on February 24, 2024

The more advanced children become at reading, the more complex certain phonics rules become. It can be frustrating (not to mention confusing) when kids learn core phonics rules only to encounter situations when there’s a different, more complex rule that may have exceptions. This is because the English language has a deep orthography. This means there are many different pronunciations for the same spelling patterns. The orthographic complexity of the English language shows the importance of studying complex phonics rules.

As a parent or educator, understanding the complex and unusual rules in phonics can help you support your child as they strengthen their reading and writing skills. Continued phonics education builds kids’ fluency and comprehension while empowering them with the literacy skills they need for life.

To better guide your student or child through more advanced learning, here are some of the most common “tricky” phonics rules to understand.

1. Rules of the Schwa Sound (ə)

“Schwa” is the name for a special speech sound in the English language. It’s the most common vowel sound we use, although not the most common vowel letter. Therefore, it’s often a big source of confusion when kids try to read and spell on their own.

Schwa Rule #1: The schwa sounds like a lazier version of the soft /ŭ/. Examples: ‘the,’ ‘away,’ ‘of,’ ‘if,’ and ‘‘animal’.
Schwa Rule #2: It can be represented by any vowel letter (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) or no letter at all (for example, the sound before <m> in ‘rhythm’).
Schwa Rule #3: In some cases, -or and -ar may say a schwa sound, /er/. Example: ‘factory,’ and ‘dollar’.

Fun fact: the schwa sound gets even more attention in phonics instruction of different dialects, such as Australian, British, or Caribbean English.

2. Diphthongs

Diphthong means “two sounds”. It is when two adjacent vowels in a syllable make new sounds. A diphthong starts out as one vowel sound and glides into another vowel sound. The two most common diphthongs in the English language are the /oi/ sound in ‘boy’ or ‘coin’ and the /ou/ sound, like in ‘cloud’ and ‘cow’. Once children get to a certain place in their reading ability, model the sounds these vowels make when they are together and practice sounding out words with these sounds.

Diphthongs are a rather complex aspect of speech and phonics as they vary greatly depending on which dialect is being used. For example, British English and Australian English are different from each other, and each of the two dialects is much different than American or Canadian English.

3. Homophones

Homophones are a fun rule in phonics. When two or more words share the same pronunciation but are made up of different spellings and contain different meanings, that’s a homophone.

Common examples of homophones include:

To / Too / Two
Their / There / They’re
Hole / Whole
Bare / Bear
Sight / Site
Flour / Flower
No / Know
Right / Write

Teaching homophones can be tricky! Several phonics activities can help students remember which words are which.

4. The Floss or FLSZ Rule

If a single syllable, short-vowel word ends with the letter <f>, <l>, <s>, or <z>, the final consonant letter is often doubled. The word ‘FLoSS’ is a mnemonic to help remember which letters need to be doubled.

Examples: ‘pill,’ ‘fuss,’ ‘buzz,’ ‘fluff,’ and ‘mess.’

Fun Fact: The word ‘gas’ is an exception to this rule, as it is a shortened version of the full word ‘gasoline’.

5. Vowel-Consonant-e (VCe)

For the VCe rule, when a vowel is followed by a consonant and then <e>, the vowel usually makes a long sound while the <e> remains silent.

Examples: ‘cake,’ ‘mate,’ ‘rake,’ ‘shine,’ ‘stripe,’ and ‘write.’

6. Soft C and Soft G

When the letters <c> or <g> are followed by the vowels <e>, <i>, or <y>, the consonants make their soft sounds: /s/ for <c> and /j/ for <g>.

Examples: ‘cent,’ ‘gem,’ ‘circle,’ ‘gym,’ and ‘cereal.’

7. Hard C and Hard G

Conversely, when the letters <c> and <g> are followed by the vowels <a>, <o>, or <u>, they make their hard sounds: /k/ for <c> and /g/ for <g>.

Examples: ‘game,’ ‘gut,’ ‘cup,’ ‘cow,’ and ‘cat.’

8. R-Controlled Vowels

When the letter <r> follows a vowel, it changes how the vowel is pronounced. Examples of R-controlled vowels include /ar/ in ‘cart,’ /er/ in ‘fern,’ /ir/ in ‘third,’ /or/ in ‘born,’ and /ur/ in ‘burnt.’

9. Longer Spelling After a Short Vowel

How do you know when to use -ch or -tch for the /ch/ sound? When should someone use -k or -ck for the end sound, /k/? Or what about -dge vs. -ge end-spelling?

Remember: Use the longer spelling option (-ck, -tch, -dge) if the sound is directly after a short vowel sound.

Whenever you hear the /ch/ sound at the end of a word (or syllable) and that sound follows a short vowel sound, use -tch. For example: ‘switch’, ‘botch’, ‘fetch’, and ‘latch.’

Conversely, in the words ‘couch,’ ‘finch,’ ‘church,’ ‘each,’ etc., the /ch/ sound follows a consonant, long vowel sound, or diphthong. These words use -ch instead of -tch.

The same rule applies to -ck vs. -k (‘snack’ vs. ‘shark’) and -dge vs. -ge (‘dodge’ vs. ‘cage’).

10. When “S” Sounds Like /Z/

In the English language, the letter <s> represents the /z/ sound 70% of the time!

When there are two vowels “sandwiching” the letter <s> in a word, the letter <s> is often pronounced /z/.

Examples: ‘use,’ ‘music,’ ‘rose,’ ‘lose,’ ‘excuse,’ ‘those,’ and ‘these.’

The <s> as /z/ rule also applies when it indicates a plural of a word that ends in -ss (‘crosses’), -sh (‘wishes’), -ch (‘benches’), -o (‘videos’), -x (‘boxes), and -z (‘fizzes’).

Another rule that can apply for <s> as /z/ is when <s> appears before or after a voiced consonant. For example: ‘bags,’ ‘gums,’ ‘toys,’ or ‘spasm,’ ‘wisdom,’ and ‘cosmic.’

How to Learn (or Teach!) More Advanced Phonics Rules

Whether you need to brush up on your advanced phonics rules or you’re trying to find creative ways to teach these rules in a classroom, phonics.org will walk you through it.

Start by exploring our helpful resources for teachers and tips for parents. We also recommend taking a look at our phonics program reviews for extra insight!

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.

Methods of Effective Decoding in Reading

phonicsorg on February 8, 2024

When children are learning to read, they must be taught how to “sound out” letters and blend them together to form words. If you’re a parent or teacher, for example, you’ll likely hear your child put together the word ‘dog’, saying /d/ /o/ /g/ … “dog!”

This process is called decoding.

Decoding is an important practice in reading development and one that is required for literacy. By definition, decoding is the translating of printed words into speech by sounding out each letter to form the word.

Some children pick up decoding quickly and easily, whereas others struggle to decipher new words. It can be a frustrating phase for a child but it doesn’t have to be.

To help your phonics students master this crucial skill in their literacy journey, here’s what you should know about effective decoding in reading.

Learning Effective Decoding Strategies

Decoding is an aspect of systematic phonics instruction. To understand these strategies, children should already have some phonemic awareness skills, including the ability to blend individual sounds into words.

1. Letter Sounds

While not an explicit decoding strategy in itself, learning the alphabet and letter sounds is the precursor to decoding. Children must be able to identify letters in print correctly and correlate the appropriate sounds to each letter. If a child struggles with early decoding methods, they may still need to develop their understanding of how letter sounds (phonemes) are represented by letters (graphemes).

2. Simple to Complex

Begin decoding instruction by teaching children to read simple words and then move to more complex words. For example, many reading programs begin with consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words like ‘cat’. Once the child can read these types of words with ease, they can start to practice decoding words with consonant blends like ‘sand’ or ‘blast’.

Introducing a complex word like ‘giraffe’ or ‘yacht’ when a child is just learning to decode can be frustrating! Building decoding skills in a step-by-step way helps children strengthen their competence and confidence when learning to read.

3. Blending

To make sense of new words, children combine letter sounds to form the full word. This is called blending. As an example, when a child sees the word ‘map’ for the first time, they must identify the letter and sounds in the word and then put them together to read the word ‘map.’

There are multiple methods of phoneme blending. The easiest way to blend is called continuous blending, or connected phonation. This strategy works well with continuous sounds like /m/ that can be held or elongated. Continuous blending is where the sounds are blended together without stopping in between. For example, reading the word ‘moss’ may sound like ‘mmmmmmmmoooooooooosssssssssss’. The sounds can be repeated and sped up to read words.

Blending is used in early reading but remains an important skill for life! It’s one of the most empowering skills in literacy development. Even through adulthood, readers use blending to decipher advanced, unfamiliar words and expand their vocabularies.

4. Chunking

Sometimes children come across familiar parts of a word with a new prefix or suffix. A child may know the word ‘want’ but come across the word ‘unwanted’ for the first time. They may recognize ‘want’ but then segment the sounds -un and -ed to then blend the whole word, ‘unwanted.’

As readers learn more advanced words that contain multiple syllables, this strategy—called chunking—can be used as a way to help decoding. Building a child’s understanding of affixes will support their ability to break a word into its smaller parts. It can be used to help them demonstrate spelling patterns, read longer words, and notice root words.

5. Syllable Splitting

Also called syllabication, syllable splitting helps children read longer words when decoding. The word ‘definition’ can be a complex word to decode for the first time, so breaking it down into syllables may make it easier to pronounce and understand: de-fi-ni-tion, pronounced /de/ /fi/ /ni/ /shun/.

Some children may need help with syllables in the decoding process. Using lines or symbols to split syllables can help a student visualize the correct pronunciation.

Strategies to Help Kids Practice Decoding

Like all aspects of phonics instruction, decoding should be taught explicitly and systematically while still being approachable and engaging for students.

To build the necessary decoding skills for a child, try to make it fun! Use games, activities, songs, and interactive stories to instill these important reading techniques.

As a teacher or parent, model correct decoding strategies for your child or students and don’t hesitate to guide them when they get stuck. For a hands-on learning experience that supplements classroom instruction, use an educational phonics app that includes fun decoding exercises or games.

Common Decoding Challenges and Mistakes

Every child learns to read at their own pace, so don’t worry if a student faces decoding challenges. It’s expected that they’ll make mistakes, especially during early reading. As reading skills grow, many children may struggle with irregular words, digraphs, or silent letters at first.

Reading is a sophisticated skill that takes time, explicit instruction, effective practice, and lots of encouragement. Acknowledge your child’s struggles and strengths. Let them know it’s okay to mess up and try again. Remind them that they’re still learning and celebrate their dedication to getting better.

If a student really struggles or falls behind in their decoding skills, you can seek insight from a phonics educator or reading specialist who uses proven instructional methods. There may be an underlying issue that needs to be addressed before the student can progress in their literacy development.

Resources to Teach Decoding Skills in Phonics Instruction

When kids learn decoding in a systematic way, they build foundational literacy skills. Mastering these skills at each new level of reading is an exciting, empowering experience that every child deserves.

Whether you’re helping your kindergartener practice decoding at home or teaching a class of third graders more advanced words, you need to know how to provide explicit instruction in decoding. There are helpful resources available that equip children to take the next necessary step toward becoming literate, lifelong students.

To learn more educational tips for decoding, reading, and writing, explore the resources at phonics.org!