When teaching your child to read using a phonics based approach, it is important to provide them with words to read that they have already learned the sound-symbol correspondence for. This means you teach the speech sound and match it to the letter/s that represent the sound. E.g. after teaching the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/, when spoken smoothly (blended) you can hear the word mat. Similarly /a/ /m/ when blended gives you the word am and /a/ /t/, the word at.
This week, we are providing you with a sample of the word bank that is a part of our Essentials Package. This is a table of words that are organised in the order in which we encourage you to teach your child the speech sounds. There are over 750 words in the complete document that over time, you will be able to give to your child to read and spell.
We encourage you at the earliest stage of teaching your child to read using phonics to start in the beginners column and wherever possible, start with the vc words, these are two letter words made up of a vowel and consonant, like am, at, in etc before moving onto cvc words, these are the three letter words made up of a consonant, vowel and consonant. These terms are for your reference only. All you need to do is provide the letters on a flashcard for your child to read or perhaps write the letters on a whiteboard.
Providing decodable words for your child to read is important as it:
1. Allows your child to apply the skill of sound recall
2. Practise blending sounds and symbols that they have been taught
3. To grow in confidence in the skill of reading
4. Increases opportunities for motivation
5. To experience success in the development of a complex process
We trust that you will find the resource beneficial. Do reach out to us if there is something specific that you would like us to guide you through.
Until next week, where we will be sharing about sight words!
