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.
