Most of us never learned to read and write using phonics at school so it can all feel very new and confusing to parents with children beginning to learn it at nursery and in Reception. We hope the following guide will help you to make sense of it all!
Phonics is about breaking spoken words down into their individual sounds (phonemes) and the relationship between these sounds and the letters that represent the sounds (graphemes). Put more simply, the grapheme or symbol ‘a’ makes the phoneme sound “a” like in “cat”. Many words in the English language are phonetics so if your child can master their phonics, it can really help to give them more confidence with reading and writing.
Definitions:
- A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. There are 44 phonemes in English.
- A grapheme is the letter(s) used to represent a phoneme.
- A digraph is a phoneme which is represented by two graphemes (eg. ‘ai’ in the word rain).
- A trigraph is a phoneme which is represented by three graphemes (eg. ‘igh’ in the word night).
Many children are taught the words phoneme, grapheme, digraph and trigraph so don’t be afraid to use them now you know what they mean! It’s worth noting that some phonic schemes used in nurseries/schools use different terminology so do check the terms your child is using at their own setting.
Phonics at School:
Most nurseries begin to introduce phonics in the preschool year and all children will be taught phonics once they begin Reception. It’s important to remember there shouldn’t be any pressure to ensure your child knows all their sounds before they start school. However, if they are showing enthusiasm to hear, recognise and learn sounds, then embrace this and give them the opportunities to learn more.
How is Phonics Taught?
Phonics is usually taught in phases, starting in the preschool setting and continuing until year 2.
- Phase 1 is usually covered in the preschool setting as well as in Reception and is all about speaking and listening.
- Following on from this, Phase 2 begins to introduce children to single letter sounds, such as a, followed by simple digraph phonemes, such as ck.
- Phase 3 looks at trickier digraphs, such as ai and oa and trigraphs such as igh.
- Phase 4 is a consolidation of all phonemes learned so far, especially within CCVC (consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant) words such as slip, and CVCC words such as tent. Furthermore, children will be taught to segment and blend polysyllabic words.
- Phase 5 is about broadening their knowledge of graphemes and phonemes for use in reading and spelling. They will learn new graphemes and alternative pronunciations for these and graphemes they already know.
- Phase 6 is about reading words and teaching spelling; introducing and teaching the past tense; suffixes; longer words and the application of this spelling within writing. This is covered in year 1 and 2.
- High Frequency words will be learned throughout.
How can I teach my child to read and write?
We have created a blogpost which outlines six steps for teaching your child to read and write.
Phase 1:
Phase 1 focuses on speaking and listening and it is split into seven different aspects:
- Environmental sounds
- Instrumental sounds
- Body Percussion
- Rhythm and rhyme
- Alliteration
- Voice sounds
- Oral blending and segmenting
Phase 2:
The aim of this phase is to introduce children to letter sounds. They will learn to blend and segment consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) words and learn some tricky words (high frequency words). They will likely learn the following sounds, in the following order:
s, a, t, p
i, n, m, d
g, o, c, k
ck, e, u, r
h, b, f, ff, l, ll, ss
Phases 4-6:
During Phase 4, children consolidate their knowledge of previous phonemes (individual sounds) and graphemes (the written representation of a sound), and they also learn to blend and segment longer words and sentences.
In Phase 5, children learn the following sounds:
ay, ou, ie, ea
oy, ir, ue, aw
wh, ph, ew, oe, au, ey
a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e
Phase 6 focuses on further developing a child’s spelling and reading abilities.
Bright Light Phonics Books!
Watching your child learn to read and write can be a wonderfully exciting time! As mothers ourselves, we have seen first-hand the joy children get from being able to recognise their first sounds, words and sentences. Structured in a weekly format, we hope our workbooks will provide a straightforward and enjoyable way in which to guide your child on their phonics journey!
Our books are ideal in supporting and reinforcing phonics for Reception children in England. Reception children are those entering the first year of primary school (4-5 year olds). Schools in England are encouraged to follow a systematic synthetic phonics programme and so our books will fit well with your child’s own school teaching of phonics.
For some children, they may be ready to start their phonics journey from preschool age (3 years old) and some nursery settings teach the phase 2 sounds in the year before children begin school. Bright Light Phonics Book 1 can help to support these children.
For those children not in a school environment in England but who speak English, the books are suitable for children as they start learning to read and write, typically 4-6 year olds.
Our books are also perfect for non-English speaking children of all ages who are learning to read and write English.
Bright Light Phonics Programme
If you are looking for a structured programme, we offer a 12-week pre-recorded programme which is ideal for children who are just starting to read and write English. It works alongside our book, Bright Light Phonics: Book 1, which can be purchased separately via Amazon.
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