How do children learn the alphabet?

[carrotsticks777]

When I was a child we learnt a child’s version of the alphabet first - A was pronounced “a” (like the a in apple), B was “buh”, C was pronounced “kuh”, E was pronounced “eh” and so on.

Do children still learn the alphabet like this or do they just leap straight into the adult way of pronouncing letters - so a (like “Amy”), bee, see, dee, eee etc?

Interested as my son has started watching some alphabet videos for toddlers and they’re all pronouncing the alphabet like an adult would.

The alphabet and phonics are 2 separate things. I'd say most kids learn the alphabet first and then phonics.

I’m just unsure how to teach him - he seems to be showing an interest and I don’t want to get it wrong. When he points out the letter B for example, should I say “bee” or “buh”?

All the alphabet songs pronounce the letters like ay, bee, see. It's a good party trick for children to be able to sing the whole alphabet, but it doesn't mean much to them or help to teach them to read. You are better off teaching them the phonics sounds, similar to how you learned it, but more "pure" sounds, so for example, instead of 'muh' you would teach them 'mmm'. Alphablocks is a really good programme on CBeebies which teaches this.

"E was pronounced “eh” and so on."

I didn't learn this, but I've heard people say 'uh' for e rather than 'eh'.

Ideally ask his nursery or school how they do it, but a couple of years ago it was still all buh and cuh. And trying not to do too much ‘Uh’ so you can blend them. Look up jolly phonics.

Alphabet song for the alphabet.
Phonics for reading.

My grandson learnt the 'adult' alphabet first - I too thought he might struggle with phonics but he hasn't at all. He's 5 now and uses them interchangeably.

Phonics are what they need to read so they should be the priority. You'll find American videos tend to go with the adult pronunciation, British ones are more likely to be phonetic.

The alphabet song is the way most children will initially learn the alphabet in terms of just being able to recite it. For reading and understanding what it actually means, being able to write it etc. it's phonics first and then letter names.

Alphablocks on Cbeebies is great if your little one is showing an interest.

buh instead of bee but without the uh. It needs to be a pure b sound.

You want alphablocks on cebeebies for your little one.

My almost 8 year old doesn't actually even know the alphabet. He learned all his phonics in school (jolly phonics), and is an excellent reader. Only problem is when we're playing car games and he keeps asking what letter comes next... 🙈

Teach the phonetic way first as it is more beneficial. Magnetic fridge letters (which were used for years and years!) were brilliant for learning and Alphablocks was very popular with DS.

Thank you! I fear I may have set him off down the wrong path as I’ve been saying things like “em” is for mummy (as opposed to “muh”). I will have a look at Alphablocks, thanks for the suggestion.

At school and nursery it is highly likely that the focus will be phonics (a as in sound in apple not amy). However the end goal is to know both. You can acknowledge the letter name and focus on the sound it makes: "this letter's name is b (bee) it makes a 'buh' sound." In the same way we differentiate the name of something from the sound it makes: the animal is called a cow and it makes moo sound.

This is what I did too - because we did a song really early on, they could do their alphabet as a rhyme well before they were really looking at letters.

I think it is fine so longa s when you do the reading you use the same system as the school will use, which for me was phonics.

My kids were both singing it around age 2 thanks to cocomelon and the likes lol.

Thanks, that’s very helpful!

EYFS teacher here. Very simply-

We sing the alphabet song every day. This teaches us the letter names. Phonics teach the children the sounds the letters make.

Look up phonics videos on YouTube as the phonics sounds are different to how I learned letter sounds as a child and I've had to learn the correct phonics sounds.

There's also digraphs which are 2 letters that make a sound eg 'ch','sh','oo' and children will learn those in reception as well as the single letter phonics sounds. They can then blend them to sound out words.

One way to think about is 'names' and 'sounds'. Like 'cow' and 'moo'. So the letter 'ay' makes the sound 'a'. In UK schools they first focus on the 'pure' sounds as it makes it easier to segment and blend words. For some children it does not matter but to cover as many children as possible it is best to focus on those sounds and listening to sounds within words (beginning, middle and end)

They can learn both it doesn't really seem to be an issue, you certainly won't mess anything up by teaching both.
Even bilingual children, although slightly slower, they don't have any trouble in the end with the same words in. Different contexts.
It's great that you're talking such an interest in working with your child, this alone is a massive predictor of learning in future. Good luck!

He’s not able to sing the alphabet yet - but he’s suddenly got interested in what each letter is. He keeps pointing to different ones asking what they are.

Check out the jolly phonics song on u tube each letter has an action which helps them learn the sound and the letter we use it in reception where I work

I will look up jolly phonics, thank you!

Slight aside - We were instructed to be careful with the phonics sounds - so "m" is "mmm" not "muh" etc. so that it's easier when it comes to blending sounds.

Watch the alphablocks, it's brilliant for teaching them phonics. And using the correct pronunciation of the sounds as well, as the previous poster pointed out.