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The Truth About Phonics

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For decades educators have debated the most effective way to teach beginning reading. Some embraced a whole word or whole language approach while others stood firm in their devotion to phonics. After years of research and shifts in educational "fashion," however, most educators now agree that phonics plays a vital role in successful reading education.

That's not to say that phonics instruction alone will create successful readers, only that phonics is an integral element in effective early reading programs. Research has shown that phonemic awareness – the awareness of specific sounds in words – is a key predictor in reading success, and that struggling readers tend to have difficulty with basic phonemic skills such as identifying, blending and separating sounds in words.

While phonics relates directly to reading, phonemic awareness is an oral and auditory skill that parents can begin nurturing early. Even basic phonics can be introduced in preschool as children learn their letters, helping them develop a solid foundation for lifelong reading success.

Here's a basic primer to get you started:

Phonemic Awareness: Phonemes are the individual sounds in spoken words. The word "cat" includes three phonemes, the "k" sound of "c", the short "a" sound, and the "t" sound. Before children learn to read letters (called graphemes), they must be familiar with the phonemic sounds of spoken language.

While teaching phonemic awareness typically involves a lot of talking, singing, rhyming and oral language play, it's easy to incorporate your child's developing knowledge of the alphabet into these activities. In fact, studies have shown that teaching children phonemic awareness is most effective in improving reading and spelling when children are taught to use the letters of the alphabet in phonemic activities.

Isolating and Identifying Sounds: Ask your child, "What is the first sound you hear in the word 'bat'?" Can your child tell you it's the "buh" sound? Does he know that the sound is made by the letter "b"? Ask, "What sound is the same in the words 'water,' 'wind' and 'Wednesday'?" Make a game of it and encourage your child to "quiz" you as well.

Blending Sounds: Once children become adept at identifying sounds, help them blend individual sounds to form words. "What word has the sounds c / a / t?" Encourage your child to use alphabet blocks or flash cards to make words by blending the sounds. (Don't worry about correct spelling at this point, only that the sounds and blending are correct.)

Rhyming and Word Play: What parent doesn't love to share nursery rhymes, songs and basic tongue twisters with their little ones? It's a fun and natural way to encourage phonemic awareness. These activities along with other types of word play – why not see how many words you can think of, including imaginary words, that rhyme with "cat" next time you're stuck in traffic? – help children develop their ability to identify sounds, improve their listening skills, increase their vocabulary and more.

Substitution: Children love to play with phoneme substitution, another important skill in phoneme awareness. "What word do you get when you change the 'b' in 'bug' to an 'r'? What if you change the 'g' to an 'n'?" With more advanced learners, you can play with adding and deleting sounds. "What do you get when you add 's' to the beginning of 'pit'?" (spit) "What if you take the 'd' away from 'drip'?" (rip)

Phonics: Phonics instruction refers to teaching children the relationships between written letters (graphemes) and spoken sounds (phonemes). Research has shown that the most effective phonics instruction is systematic, meaning a well-developed system is used to present letter-sound relationships in a clearly defined sequence with adequate opportunity for children to practice what they've learned. While you can teach your child the relationships between letters and sounds using a variety of methods and materials, a comprehensive, research-based phonics program will lead to the greatest potential reading success.

Building Vocabulary: Children can be taught to read many words using phoneme awareness and phonics instruction, but they can become truly successful at decoding words and understanding what they're reading only if they have the oral vocabulary to match their reading skills. The single most effective way to increase your child's vocabulary is to engage him or her in conversation as often as possible. The give and take of conversing with others, especially adults, is the most effective language lesson you can provide (no matter how old your child!). Reading aloud is another wonderful way to build your child's vocabulary, especially if you explain the meanings of unfamiliar words and engage in conversations about the story after you read.

As children begin to read on their own, help them learn to use context clues in decoding unfamiliar words, and continue having regular conversations with them about the books they're reading and any other subject that interests them. Not only will you help your child develop increasingly advanced language and literacy skills, you'll stay close and connected as they grow into adults.

At BabyClassroom.com, we have a variety of engaging books, DVDs and games to help you nurture your child's language and literacy skills, including an assortment of systematic phonics programs.

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