Phonics Simplified: A Quickstart Guide for Parents (Starting School Series) [Ep 74]

Phonics Made Easy: A Quickstart Guide to Help Your Child Read

In this episode, part of our annual “Starting School” series, we break down the essentials of phonics to help parents support their children’s early reading development. She explains key concepts like phonemes, graphemes, digraphs, and trigraphs, simplifying the jargon that often surrounds phonics instruction. By understanding these basic terms, you’ll be better equipped to help your child decode words and improve their reading skills.

In this episode about breaking down Phonics for your child’s early reading success:

Phonics Basics: Understand the foundational concepts of phonics, including phonemes (the sounds), graphemes (letter representations), digraphs (two letters, one sound), and trigraphs (three letters, one sound).

Decoding Words: Learn how phonics helps children decode words by breaking them down into individual sounds, then blending them back together for reading, or segmenting them for writing.

Blending & Segmenting: Blending sounds helps with reading (e.g., “c-a-t” becomes “cat”), while segmenting sounds assists with spelling and writing.

Prefixes & Suffixes: Discover the role of prefixes and suffixes in helping children tackle longer words, making reading easier by focusing on root words.

Challenges in Phonics: Acknowledge the difficulties children may face, especially with vowels and multiple spelling patterns for the same sound.

Support Strategies: Gain tips for reinforcing phonics at home, including ways to make the learning process engaging and effective for early readers.

Reading Made Delicious Resources to help support you

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Content Disclaimer

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this episode are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this podcast. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this podcast. Sarah Travers disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this episode.