Phonics and Phonemes are One of the Strategies Used in Learning to Read.

In order to talk more about what phonics and phonemes are and how children learn these, I think it is best to define what phonics and phonemes are.

Phonemes: are the individual sounds each letter of the alphabet makes.

Phonics: is the relationship between letters and sounds in written word form.

There are many phonics programs for teaching beginning phonics that use games, rhymes, stories and pictures to make it fun. Each school will adopt a program and quite often teachers may use a little of a mixture as they use what has worked for them over the years.

For reading, writing and spelling it is important for a child to develop phonics and phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is having an understanding that each word is made up of a series of phonemes or sounds.

Phonological awareness is having an understanding that words are made up of sounds and children need to be able to use and have knowledge that these sounds go together to make words. In the basic Australian alphabet there are 26 letters which go together to make 43/44 sounds. Naturally, there are going to be sounds made up of two or more letters (phonemes). It is here where the learning of phonics for children is important.

In the basic Australian alphabet there are 26 letters which go together to make 43/44 sounds. Naturally, there are going to be sounds made up of two or more letters (phonemes). It is here where the learning of phonics for children is important.

Andrea Weaver a speech language pathologist, has listed the main areas of phonological awareness that may need to be practised as:

1. Word Awareness: this involves breaking sentences up into words. You can look at individual sentences with your child (maybe in a reading book they bring home) and by covering words get you child to identify single words and then put them all back together. Example: I can skip. Allow them to see the 3 single words but also know that together it makes meaning.

    

2. Syllables: breaking of words up into syllables or beats. When we learn words we often break them up into beats we hear. Example: computer can be broken up into com-pu-ter. A good idea is to get your child to clap out the sounds they hear in the words as you say them. Using syllables can help the child read, write and spell words.

    

3. Rhyme: requires the recognition of rhyming words and producing words that sound alike. It is basically knowing that your child knows that cat and hat rhyme. Nursery Rhymes, songs and choosing books to read that contain rhyming patterns (Dr.Seuss is one author that uses it alot) or just point out rhyming words in books. You can also talk about words and ask your child to think of as many words they can think of that rhyme with a word - it doesn't even matter if it is a real word or not as long as they can hear the sound.

    

4. Alliteration: providing words that start with the same sound. Many of the tongue twisters have alliteration, or another example would be big, beautiful butterflies. You could create a game with your child quite easily by going through the alphabet and making up an alliteration story for each letter.

    

5. Analysis/Segmentation: finding out how many sounds there are in words and working out which sounds are first, second or third etc. An example would be the word fish - it has 4 letters but if you sound it out you find that it has 3 sounds f-i-sh - it is important that they can tell you the initial sound is f (fff) and the final sound is sh.

    

6. Blending: isolated sounds are given and the child needs to learn to "push them" together to work out the whole word. Example you may say to your child - ddd - ooo - ggg and they need to be able to tell you that the word is dog.

    

7. Manipulation: sounds are left out of words, changed for other sounds or moved to a different part of the word. As they become more comfortable with the other areas of phonological awareness there are many words games to play with children to help them manipulate and understand words and sounds better. An example could be change the word race to wish in 4 steps => race - rash - wash - wish

While phonics and phonemic awareness are important, they are only one strategy in the learning of reading. Relying only on phonics will not allow a well rounded reading program. So to fully understand the strategies for becoming an effective reader, also look at the information on semantics, grammar and reading comprehension, which deliver a reading skills program that will achieve success. 

If your child struggles with their beginning blends, KidsLearningisfun has a great Blends Puzzle that can help your child sound out words with beginning blends and a new range of phonics activities are soon to be released.