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.

Year 1 teacher here. The ultimate aim is for children to know both the name of the letter (alphabet) and the sound it makes (phonics).

It is really important that you use pure sounds (no uh on the end) as it is much easier to learn to blend. Alphablocks is amazing for getting children started. The different letters say My name is ... and I make the sound ... Plus children love it!

I wouldn't look up any particular phonics schemes (Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc etc) unless you know which one the school / nursery will use - the rhymes can be confusing otherwise.

At school they teach them ah buh cuh first.

I taught DC the name of the letter is A and the sound it makes is ah. I sang the ABC song from when they were tiny, but also sounded out letters as we walked around. So walking past each road sign at age two I’d say “Look, Apple Hill. Ah puh puh ul eh huh i ul ul. Apple Hill.” I did that every time we walked past a sign for months. Did get very good readers though.

We also had a toy that sang a song when you press the letter. So if you pressed B it would song “B says buh! B says buh!” Unfortunately it went wrong and eg if you pressed G it would sing about Z, so that went in the bin pretty fast. Would have been great if it worked though.

If you’re doing phonics, M isn’t ‘muh’, it’s ‘mm’. Eg jam isn’t pronounced Juhahmuh.

My kids always just learn the alphabet by rote and how to write comes along with it, nursery helps, and then at school they have their own way of teaching phonics. So best leave it up to school IMO!

I didn’t realise that about muh vs mmm. It sounds like I need to get my phonics up to scratch. This thread has been very informative, thank you!

@MassiveSalad22 I would rather leave it up to school, but as he’s asking questions now I’m keen to know how best to respond without totally confusing the poor boy!

Have a look at this document OP
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190599/Letters_and_Sounds_-_DFES-00281-2007.pdf

I wouldn’t worry too much about it really. I mean we all learnt just fine hey? I’m the era of Letterland - Ippy Ink, Kicking K etc 😍 loved it!

(OK I’ve just looked up Letterland and it was phonics based… but haven’t seen that approach in current schools… my point is things change all the time and everyone still learns 😃 but yes alphablocks is the way to go)

My daughter learnt the alphabet when she was like 2/3 and we done it ay bee cee dee ee etc. however at school she learnt it this way and the ah buh cuh di eh style if that makes sense? Trying to type that is really weird haha! I think if he had an understanding of the alphabet then it's all good. He should pick it up at school but no harm in going over it at home xxx

I think uk state schools teach phonics- so the sound letters (or letter combos) make. The alphabet song is really just the names of the letters rather than their sound used in speech/reading. The schools don't teach phonics in alphabetical order.

Watch Alphablocks with him.

Start with whatever sound is at the beginning of his name. Then he can spot it wherever he sees it. Kids are quite egotistical so love shit like that.

If his name is Charlie (eg) then show/draw "ch" and point it out everywhere. "That's the Ch in your name". If it's Sam, just draw S, point it out everywhere you see etc.

It’s not just ‘mug’ that is different now OP, it’s most of the letters so S is ‘ssss’ not ‘suh’ for example. It’s basically taking the ‘uh’ sound off of it all, and sort of pronouncing them
more cleanly, which is a really difficult habit to get into for a brummie by they way.

it makes sense though when you think of the word cat, if you sound it out as we were taught it’s ‘cuhahtuh’ but we don’t say that.

If you search ‘little windows phonics videos’ they have lots of YouTube videos teaching the correct pronunciation and it explains it all to you. Schools will use different schemes but the basic sounds and rationale behind it is the same.

Little wandles, not windows.

DS nursery said they don't teach the 'alphabet' anymore they just do the phonetic sounds. See which program they use and Google resources.

Exactly this! You need to minimise the -uh as much as possible otherwise your child will have difficulty blending the sounds to read words.

You need to do phonics first.
Although many children can cope with learning the names and sounds together, some can't and you don't know which group your child will be in.

So phonics first. Then switch to letter names gradually, (normally y1-y2?)

The phonics sounds aren't what you think they are. Starting watching alpha blocks. Both of you :)

DC (now age 14-22) had minimal teaching about the alphabet. They could read very well but didn't know the alphabet. Am pretty sure one or 2 DC still gets confused about the alphabet order, I remember them being confused not knowing how to look up words in a dictionary.

*You need to do phonics first.
Although many children can cope with learning the names and sounds together, some can't and you don't know which group your child will be in.

So phonics first. Then switch to letter names gradually, (normally y1-y2?)*

This isn’t how DDs school, or the schools I’ve worked at, have taught it. Sounds and letter names were taught concurrently in nursery and reception. It’s just explained as this is ‘A’ it makes the sound ‘a’. Just like teaching a child this is a cow and it makes the sound moo.

I'm sorry but the phonic sound for M is not "muh". That would confuse little ones. Its a "pure" mmmm sound like "mmm that's delicious". Likewise N is not "nuh" - its "nnn" - the pure N sound not with "uh" added after it.

I'd suggest alphablocks or jolly phonics videos but also - perhaps just leave it to school?

OP please watch this link for the pronunciation of sounds - phonics and phonemes video link