When teaching children to read and spell in the early years, the most effective method, as recommended by all government reports for the past decade, is a “systematic phonetics” approach combined with combined activities to promote phonological awareness.

If parents are teaching their own children to read, write, and spell at home, they can choose a “group of early speech sounds,” for example, the sounds chosen in the popular Jolly Phonics synthetic phonics program. These sounds are s, a, t, i, p and n, and children are taught to hear speech sounds in words and to recognize these ‘speech sound pictures’ as a way to represent this speech sound. For example, that ‘s’ is a sound image for the sound of speech ‘sss’ (there are 8)

Why start with this particular group of speech sounds? This is because the word ‘sat’, for example, can ‘sound’ for reading and also for spelling, allowing children to quickly learn to read, write and spell words using only those letters, for example, tan, tin, pan, pat, sit, sat. , in in. With the introduction of a few “tricky” words, children can read, write, and spell complete sentences in no time; for example, I, was, the. Readers can be created so that children are actually “reading” picture books. Many are available online for free from non-profit organizations such as Fantastic Phonics and SPELD SA.

When parents know what their children need to know before they move on to learning new sound images (letter sounds), the following list can help them, as a “checklist.” By using this checklist, parents can ensure that the child has understood the important concepts and can demonstrate the skills necessary for early acquisition of reading and spelling, that is, knowledge of codes, combining, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes.

When children can decode a word, they can begin to learn its meaning. Fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary come after decoding. If a child cannot decipher the word (that is, read the word), they cannot begin to understand it within sentences. If you can’t hear speech sounds, you can’t code (spell new words) easily. Therefore, parents should focus first on teaching children how to decode and then expanding their teaching to include fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. However, as you can see from the list below, this can happen very quickly, and these additional skills (fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) can be incorporated into teaching along with training in phonetics and phonemic awareness.

At the end of the initial speech sound group, children should be;

* ‘hear’ speech sounds in words – beginning, middle end

* Recognize printed sound images and know what voice sounds they correspond to.

* form letters correctly (possibly this is less important than the other concepts, before they start school, as they can ‘spell’ words and form sentences using magnetic letters, etc.)

* mix the sounds of speech orally into words, and while ‘reading’ the sound images in words on paper (knowing that they do so from left to right)

* ‘read’ words by decoding the sound images from left to right, and mixing the sounds into words, also exploring what the word means and how we use it in our language.

* ‘spell words by listening to the speech sounds in order – and (next step) knowing how to order / combine them on paper (using letters and also forming the letters themselves – you can use a pencil and also a keyboard with lowercase letters)

* ‘read’ the words (sat, it, at, in, pin, tin, sit, pat, nip, spin, tan, etc.) and then understand the meaning of the word and sentence if the words are written inside a sentence (and in this case knowing that we read the words from left to right)

* learn some ‘tricky’ words, for example, ‘I’ ‘was’ the’ – to recognize as high-frequency words

They will also be able to read sentences, using decodable readers in line with these sound groups (also initial sound group in Jolly Phonics).

Whats Next?

If they are ready, they can move on to the digraphs, learning that 2 or more sounds can produce a new sound (s, h and sh- 3 sounds). You could use bold text to show children where the ‘chunks’ are in words – or ‘Sound Pics’. Therefore, the store would be displayed with 3 sounds and 3 sound images: sh + o + p.

After the first set of speech sound images, children can move on to learn that sounds in our spoken language can be represented in various ways (f could be ff as abrupt, ph as on the phone, etc.)

And that some sounds on paper can represent more than one sound in our language-ow- like cow or trailer.

Parents need to focus heavily on speech sounds early to develop phonological awareness, rather than the letter. When we start with what children can do, that is, speak, then it is easier for them to understand how to crack the code. When they are encouraged to hear speech sounds in words and to know where they are placed, it is easier for children to learn that there are “sound pictures” that are simply pictures of speech sounds. So ‘s’ is simply a paper representation of the sound ‘s’, and why can they be called ‘sound pictures’ to make it easier for children to understand the concept. Even from a young age, children can learn to hear how many sounds are in words, even if they have not yet been introduced to the picture. For example, to hear that ‘boat’ has 3 voice sounds and therefore you would have 3 voice sound images. Then I would draw 3 lines on paper and the kids can figure out which sound picture is on which line to build the word.

Teaching your child to read and spell early is one of the best gifts you can give your child. It should be fun and help develop a love of learning and words. The Reading Whisperer is often heard telling parents: ‘Being able to read and spell even before starting school will give them greater self-confidence, and they can start’ reading to learn ‘much earlier than most of the others. other children, who are still of school age. ‘learn to read’ “.

What parent wouldn’t want that for their child?

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