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🔤Phonics & Letters

Sounds and letters

🔤

Letters and Sounds

Key Points

  • The alphabet has 26 letters: 5 vowels (A, E, I, O, U) and 21 consonants
  • Vowels make longer sounds; consonants need a vowel to make a syllable
  • Letter combinations make new sounds: 'sh', 'ch', 'ph', 'th'
  • A syllable is one beat of sound (but-ter = 2 syllables)

📘 Examples

❓ What sound does 'ch' make in 'chair'?

✅ Ch makes a 'ch' sound — like in chair, cheese, and chocolate!

❓ How many syllables in 'elephant'?

✅ El-e-phant = 3 syllables! Clap it out: EL, E, PHANT!

❓ What rhymes with 'cat'?

✅ Bat, hat, mat, rat, sat — they all end in '-at'!

🌟 Fun Fact!

The English alphabet comes from the Latin alphabet, which came from the Greek alphabet, which came from Phoenician letters! 📜

Phonics teaches the relationship between letters and sounds, which is the foundation of reading. English is less regular than many languages, but the majority of words still follow patterns that can be taught explicitly.

Systematic phonics instruction has strong research support, and is more effective than approaches relying on guessing from context or pictures. The evidence here is unusually consistent across studies.

Common difficulties

  • Confusing letters that look similar, particularly b and d, which is extremely common and usually resolves with practice rather than indicating a problem.
  • Guessing a word from the first letter and a picture rather than sounding it through.
  • Struggling to blend sounds together, so a child can say each sound but not combine them into a word.
  • Finding digraphs difficult, where two letters make one sound, as in sh, ch, th, and ai.

How to practise at home

  • Sound out words together, then blend them slowly, and gradually speed up.
  • Read the same book more than once. Repetition builds fluency and confidence, and children usually enjoy it.
  • Play sound games without any letters, such as spotting words that start with the same sound.
  • Keep sessions short and stop before frustration. Ten minutes daily works better than a long struggle.

Frequently asked questions

What is phonics?
Teaching the relationships between letters and the sounds they represent, so children can decode unfamiliar words rather than memorising them whole.
Is it normal to confuse b and d?
Yes, extremely. Letter reversals are common up to around age seven or eight and usually resolve with practice. They are not on their own an indicator of dyslexia.
What is blending?
Combining individual sounds into a whole word, so c-a-t becomes cat. Many children can produce each sound before they can blend them, and blending usually needs separate practice.