The Value of Phonics

This is the approach year to school for us. So it means lots of focus on literacy and early writing skills. E does not know his alphabet and until recently did not really have a concept of letters and sounds and words.

We have started working on a phonic alphabet with him - focusing ONLY on the sounds and not the names of the letters. At first I wasn't sure about this wisdom of this as when someone asks him to identify a letter he is not aware (at this stage) that it has any other value except a sound.

But we have been working intensively with him (20min per day) getting him to learn his sounds. It hasn't been easy, but now that he is starting to remember them and identify a handful of sounds without prompting, I am seeing the benefit of this approach.

1. It creates clarity not confusion. Giving a letter two values would be confusing at this stage in his development. Obviously, for someone who struggles with basic language development the less confusion the better.

2. I can see how he might learn to read!! This is actually seeming a real possibility this year!! Once he knows the sounds of C, A, T  - he should be able to read CAT. If he knew the names of the letters he would not necessarily be able to read this.

What has worked for us so far:
Every day we sit down with a laminated sheet of the alphabet which he can trace the letters with an indication where to start his writing. E loves writing and tracing. So it means he practices writing letters at the same time as he is learning the sounds.

We use picture prompts of the sounds i.e. a picture of an apple for the sound 'a'.

We use a phonic alphabet song which his speech therapist has produced. Unfortunately I can't share with you this wonderful resource. But even a quick search on youtube has possibilities. I would just be careful of ones that use both the name of the letter and the sound as it gets confusing. This one doesn't completely avoid the issue but it does better than some others. Let me know if you know a song that avoids naming the letters.

 

 

We have played the song over and over again in the house and in the car. The pictures used in the song are the same pictures used as prompts when we do our 'table time'. This has been invaluable. The picture prompts brings the song to mind which then brings the sound to mind.

 

When we first started doing these exercises, he was associating the picture with the letter and was calling the letter an apple or a snake. But with persistence he is learning his sounds and now a number of them without prompts.