Phonics

[DaisyRaine90]

To wonder how the hell my child is supposed to get from phonics to reading actual words?

She knows the letter names
She knows the phonic sounds

What next??

I swear she’s getting more confused not less.

If she knows the phonic sounds and is confident in her knowledge then she should be able to start spelling simple words, with your guidance and examples of course.
E.g. if she knows the sound for ‘a’ and the sound for ‘t’ she will more than likely be able to grasp that ‘a’ and ‘t’ together sound like ‘at’.
Start with simple words and as she gets the concept of that you can move onto more complex sounds, letter combinations and longer words.

Read familiar books to her - lots of repetition is good.

Occasionally leave out words for her to fill in the gaps. Get her to blend some simpler words that contain phonemes she knows. Use the pictures and context for clues.

How old is she? If she is just starting with phonics she might well know the basic sounds but not know digraphs and trigraphs yet.

Some children are not quite ready when they start school but she will no doubt have a 'lightbulb' moment somewhere along the lines, where it all falls into place.

Phonics is not the only way children learn to read. Some do better with learning whole words.

Most of all, make sure it is fun.

Blending

I'm with you. DS reads everything phonetically like he's been taught for last two years at school, and now he's in year 2 and being asked to learn how to spell 'eighteen'; 'Autumn', 'Wednesday' etc. He's really struggling and so am I. I absolutely detest phonics.

most children get it eventually my son is elevan nearly it took him years to learn to read properly he could barely read a word untill about yr three ,he can read fluently now some kids pick it up more easily than others.

Blending! Start with two sound words and work up. It's moving from seeing a word as C-A-T to CAT, it's usually the trickiest part to master for a lot of children but it will come with lots of practise - blending aloud is always best!l for practise!

A very small subset of children have a problem processing phonics, the vast majority learn well using phonics.

Knowing letter names is not that helpful when learning to read if you think about it. Using letter names to spell words is a useful convention that children become competent with later on, it just muddies the waters in the early stages.

Use the sounds to blend simple words - if she know the phonic sounds it is more than likely she will be able to do this.

Hijacking this thread to ask if there are any good resources online for helping me to understand phonics. DS is in reception and I understand the absolute basics (I.e. Sounding words out) but beyond that I don't have a clue.

Look at the phonics play site. That's really good.

i dont remember being taught to read using phonics this would have been late 70s and i read really well at a much younger age then my son.

It might help if you find out what scheme school are using, as they all teach it in slightly different ways with some varying terminology - you can then research that specific scheme :)

this might be useful

I think I’m going to try and teach her with word recognition tbh. She has to know letter names as well as the phonics (and knew her alphabet when she was younger and before I knew anything about phonics).

Her memory and recognition skills are brilliant. I can show her the word “the” and then she’ll find it every time it comes up. I learnt using whole words not phonics and could read by Reception.

We will ask practice blending more.

I can’t help thinking that this obsession with phonics and one size fits all learning style is failing some kids though.

Universal programs get on my tits 😂

Try the app pocket phonics t does lots of repetition and starts with the SATPIN words getting the child to find the letter and really clearly blending them together.

Words like 'the' are whats known as 'tricky words' we teach children that there are some words that you can never sound out and blend, like 'here' and 'my' They love trying though!
I spend most of the academic year teaching phonics and listening to readers, the combination of phonics and constant revision of tricky words really does work. In less than a year the vast majority leave eyfs confident readers.
It sounds as though you're really supportive, just keep reading to your child, not just books, everything! Point out sounds and tricky words around you and just keep sharing books together (I'm sure you do)

Two things...

1. Blending sounds - so sounds like sl, cr, ing etc. Then putting them together, so c-a-t, p-i-n, etc.

1. Word recognition of what we call 'red words' which are words that you can't sound out using phonics. (Annoyingly the English language has a lot!) So initially common words like 'one' 'the' etc. You can google to find a list as my brain isn't fully working yet this morning!

I see I have cross posted with a couple of others!!

I find phonics a ridiculous way of teaching children. To me it's just teaching them something wrong and then showing them all the words it doesn't work for. FFS just teach them properly the first time around.

Phonics is brilliant, by the time they have learnt up to phase 3 they can write a phonically plausible version of any word. You can introduce high frequency words alongside phonics, they make up a large percentage of what we read but don't follow phonetic rules that the children will have learnt yet.

Lots of blending, sounding out, sound buttons, using fingers to count the sounds etc. Phonics is fun and it's the most effective method of learning to read.

I find phonics a ridiculous way of teaching children. To me it's just teaching them something wrong and then showing them all the words it doesn't work for. FFS just teach them properly the first time around.

^This. DS brings home books with 'through' in them, for example, sounds them out, can't get it and then tells me he's stupid. It's horrible.

Every time I try to sound a word out with her it breaks the rules. 🙄

Beyond frustrating.

I don’t sound things out as an adult or use phonics AT ALL.

I know the words and parts of words, I learnt homophones etc.
I learnt the alphabet.

I had never heard of phonics until my DD started learning them 😂

If you teach words by sight, how many words will she be able to memorise?

All of them eventually.
Or you learn parts of the word.

For instance nobody reads
Antidisestablishmentarianism
Without breaking it down into smaller parts

I doubt anyone is reading it using phonics either

I doubt anyone is reading it using phonics either

Anyone who is old enough to have learned to read using phonics will be.

How do you know how to pronounce it if you're not using phonics?

I agree. I’m struggling to explain things like silent letters to DD. Bloody hate phonics