How do children learn to read? How can we assist them in this process? What resources can we use and when?

To effectively help children to learn to read, it’s essential to understand the reading development process. In our previous blog post, we explored children’s reading development in detail. In this blog post we will discuss what steps are necessary to help children learn to read, all rooted in an understanding of their reading development.

Exposure to the Sounds of English

Before students can learn to read, they must first become familiar with the sounds of the language. We can call this stage exposure. For native English speakers, this process happens naturally through everyday interactions with their environment. From birth, babies are surrounded by conversations, songs, and other language inputs. Research suggests that infants start picking up the phonetic distinctions of their language within the first six months of life. By the age of two, children have typically been exposed to thousands of hours of spoken language, which lays the foundation of the language’s sound (phonological awareness).

What if My Student is an ESL Learner?

Whether your student is a native English speaker or an ESL learner, the steps to learn to read are similar, though they may look different or take more time. Before students can read, they must be aware of the sounds in the language.

Regardless of the type of learner, they need to be exposed to the sounds of the language. Native speakers hear English spoken around them daily, while ESL learners can benefit from TV shows, movies, and songs. Consistent, daily exposure to English sounds is essential, so playing songs throughout the day is a simple yet effective way to achieve this.

For ESL learners, especially those not in immersive environments, acquiring the sounds of English requires more intentional exposure. Although it’s difficult to quantify the exact number of hours needed to develop sufficient exposure to a language’s sounds, research emphasizes the importance of consistent daily exposure over time. Several studies and language acquisition theories support the idea that repeated listening exposure is vital for developing phonological awareness.

Developing Phonological Awareness

We delve deeper into the elements of phonological awareness in this article, but in short, phonological awareness is the ability to distinguish different sounds and manipulate them. Children often learn this naturally through exposure, being able to identify words in a sentence or recognize words that rhyme. What needs to be taught explicitly is phoneme awareness. Each language consists of individual sounds, and in English, we have 44 different phonemes. Phoneme awareness is the ability to distinguish and manipulate these sounds in a word; it is all done orally. For example, the word “cat” comprises three phonemes: /c/ + /a/ + /t/. Numerous activities and resources can be utilized to teach elements of both phonemic awareness and overall phonological awareness at home.

Fun Activities to Reinforce Phonological Awareness

1. Rhyming Bingo: Create or print bingo cards with pictures of rhyming words (e.g., cat, hat, bat). Call out a word, and the child covers the matching rhyme.
2. Sound Matching Game: Make a set of cards with pictures that begin with the same sound (e.g., “sun,” “sock”). Ask the child to find the pairs.
3. I Spy with Sounds: Play “I spy” focusing on sounds: “I spy something that starts with /b/.”
4. Phoneme Substitution Game: Say a word (e.g., “cat”) and ask the child to replace the first sound to create a new word (e.g., “bat”).
5. Clap the Syllables: Say a word and have the child clap out the syllables (e.g., “apple” = two claps).

You can also teach implicit phonemic awareness through the following activities:

• Phoneme Isolation: Identifying the first, middle, or last sound in a word (e.g., the first sound in “dog” is /d/).
• Phoneme Blending: Combining sounds to form a word (e.g., /b/ /a/ /t/ makes “bat”).
• Phoneme Segmentation: Breaking a word into its individual sounds (e.g., “dog” becomes /d/ /o/ /g/).
• Phoneme Manipulation: Adding, deleting, or substituting sounds to create new words (e.g., changing /c/ in “cat” to /b/ to make “bat”).

At Brightly Reading, we work with children as young as four to help them build phonemic awareness. Book a free assessment today!

Teaching Letter-Sound Association

Once students have a solid understanding of phonemic awareness, you can introduce letter-sound associations, that is which letters represent which sounds. For example, the letter “b” makes a /b/ sound as in “bat,” “ball,” or “bubble.” Children need to visually see the letter, and make this connection. You can have flashcards with the different letters, and teach your child the basic sound for each letter.

If your child doesn’t yet know the names of the letters, that’s okay. If they already know it, that’s perfectly fine as well, but introducing both the letter sound and letter name simultaneously can be confusing for students. You can teach your child the letter names after they have identified the different sounds for each letter or teach them earlier before starting sound-letter instruction. Avoid combining these instructions, as it may confuse the learner.

Which ‘Letter-Sound Associations’ Should We Teach First?

Note: It is not necessary to teach all letter-sound associations before moving on to the next step (blending). In fact, it is beneficial to begin blending as they learn each letter-sound association.

1. Start with Continuous Sounds: Continuous sounds are those that can be held or stretched without distortion (e.g., /s/, /m/, /f/). These sounds are easier for children to hear and pronounce clearly.

• /f/ as in fish,
• /l/ as in lamp
• /m/ as in man
• /n/ as in nose
• /r/ as in run
• /s/ as in sun, cent (s & c) make the /s/ sound
• /v/ as in van
• /z/ as in zebra

2. Short Vowel Sounds: Introduce short vowel sounds early, as they form the basis for many simple word patterns. Example: consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words:

• /a/: as in cat
• /e/: as in bed
• /i/: as in sit
• /o/: as in hot
• /u/: as in cup
• /oo/: as in book

3. More Common Consonants: Once the initial consonants and short vowels are mastered, introduce additional consonants:

• /k/ as in cat (from c and k)
• /d/: as in dog
• /g/: as in goat
• /h/: as in hat
• /l/: as in log
• /b/ as in bat
• /t/ as in top
• /j/ as in jam
• /p/ as in pig

Up until this point, the letter-sound associations have been relatively straightforward. There are always spelling exceptions; for example, the phoneme /f/ can be spelled as f, ph, or gh, as seen in words like phone and laugh. However, most of the spelling patterns covered so far—such as continuous sound consonants, common consonants, and short vowels—tend to be mostly predictable. This predictability makes it easier for children to learn and understand the sound-letter associations.

The next set of phonemes that children need to master are the long vowel sounds, which come with varied spelling patterns that can complicate learning. Below, we outline the different long vowel sounds and their most common spelling patterns. While there are additional spelling patterns, focusing on these key ones will make acquisition easier for young learners.

When introducing long vowel sounds, it’s important to focus on one sound at a time to avoid overwhelming students. Additionally, start with one spelling pattern for each vowel to help them grasp the concept more effectively. This could look like having a flashcard with the spelling pattern “ai,” and teaching them that it makes the sound “ay,” the long a sound.

Learning Activities to Reinforce Understanding

You should be reinforcing learning with various activities, such as multi-sensory practices—having students write words with long vowels in sand or using finger painting. Creating a word wall with examples of each long vowel sound and its corresponding spelling patterns can also be beneficial. This should be layered with blending activities and the use of decodable books. As mentioned earlier, students should begin blending as soon as they learn short vowels, enabling them to blend simple CVC words like cat, bat, and hat. This foundational skill allows them to continue blending and decoding as they encounter more complex phonemes and spelling patterns, such as long vowels.

4. Long Vowel Sounds: After students have a good grasp of short vowels and basic consonants, they can move on to long vowels. Each long vowel has many different spelling patterns, but it is best to keep things simple when first teaching these letter-sound associations. Stick with the most common spelling pattern, as seen below.

• /ā/: as in snail, mail, hail (common spelling pattern: ai, a-e)
• /ē/: as in bee, free, keep, tree (common spelling pattern: ee)
• /ī/: as in spider, find (common spelling pattern: i, i-e)
• /ō/: as in boat, coat, float, rope (common spelling pattern: oa, o-e)

Long U has two different sounds.

• The first is juː, and sounds like “ywu,” like in cube and music. 
• The second is uː, and sounds like “uw,” like in rule and june.

5. Consonant Digraphs: Once students are familiar with individual consonants and all vowel sounds, you can move on to consonant digraphs (two letters that represent one sound):

• /sh/: as in ship
• /ch/: as in chip
• /th/ as in this (voiced) and thin (voiceless)
• /wh/: as in when
• /zh/ as in vision

6. Less Common Consonants: These consonants are less frequent or have more complex spellings, so they are usually taught after the basics:

• /v/: as in van
• /w/: as in wet
• /y/: as in yes
• /z/: as in zoo

8. R-Controlled Vowels: Once students are comfortable with basic vowel sounds, introduce r-controlled vowels, where the “r” changes the vowel sound:

• /ar/: as in car
• /or/: as in fork
• /er/: also spelt like /ir/, /ur/: as in herd, bird, surf

9. Advanced Digraphs and Vowel Teams: As students progress, introduce more complex vowel teams and digraphs:

• /oi/: as in coin
• /ou/: as in cloud
• /ow/: as in cow
• /au/: as in haul

Take your time teaching your child the different sound-letter associations. It is also crucial to know the correct pronunciation of each phoneme. Familiarize yourself with this video: Pronouncing Phonemes.

How to Reinforce Knowledge of Each Letter-Sound Association

Flashcards

• Traditional Flashcards: Show a letter on one side and ask the child to say its sound. On the reverse side, you can have a picture of an object that begins with that letter sound to help reinforce meaning (e.g., “b” for “ball”).
• Interactive Flashcards: Use flashcards in fun ways, such as hiding them around the room for a scavenger hunt or laying them out and asking the child to jump to the correct letter when you say a sound.

Letter-Sound Games

• Sound Bingo: Create bingo cards with letters on them. Say a sound, and the child must find and cover the corresponding letter on their bingo card.
• Memory Match: Create pairs of cards—one with a letter and one with a picture of an object that starts with that letter sound (e.g., “s” and “sun”). The child has to match the letter to the sound-picture.
• I-Spy with Sounds: Play I-Spy using sounds instead of names. For example, “I spy something that starts with the /m/ sound.” Then ask student to show which letter makes this sound.

Letter-Sound Tracing

• Sand or Salt Trays: Have the child trace the letter in sand or salt while saying the sound. This provides sensory feedback and strengthens the connection.
• Finger Writing: The child can “write” the letter in the air or on the table using their finger while saying the sound.
• Playdough Letters: The child can form letters using playdough while saying the sound. This tactile activity helps them connect the shape of the letter with the sound.

Reinforcing Blending

Blending is the ability to combine individual phonemes into words. Students will have practiced this before while developing phonemic awareness. Now, they will learn to blend phonemes with the corresponding letter. Once students have learned 4-6 letter sounds (including at least one vowel), you can introduce blending. Start with simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words like “cat,” “dog,” or “sit.” You don’t need to wait until they know every letter-sound association.

The Blending Process:

1. Start with Sounding Out Letters:
   Begin by reviewing the letter sounds the child already knows. Write or use letter cards for CVC words like “cat” or “sit.” Point to each letter, saying the corresponding sound clearly (e.g., /k/, /a/, /t/). Then say the word slowly by “stretching” the sounds together (e.g., “/k/… /a/… /t/… cat!”). Stretching is helpful because it models how sounds blend into a word.
2. Sound-by-Sound Blending:
   After sounding out each letter individually, have the child say the word in slow motion by blending the sounds: “/k/…/a/…/t/.” Then have the child say the sounds faster and faster until they pronounce the word naturally (“cat”). Repeat this process with multiple CVC words, always encouraging the child to say the sounds first, then blend.
3. Blending from Left to Right:
   Once the child is familiar with stretching sounds, teach them to blend sounds smoothly from left to right in one fluid motion. For example, when reading “dog,” have them touch the first letter “d” and say its sound, then slide their finger across the next letter “o” and say its sound, and finally “g” for the last letter, merging the sounds together as they go. This helps to build fluency and automaticity in blending.

Fun Games and Activities to Reinforce Blending:

Blending Binder:
Use a binder to create blending cards. Add the letter-sounds the student has learned, and practice blending different words. This activity makes blending interactive and visual.

Robot Talk:
Pretend to be a robot that talks in segmented sounds. For example, you say, “The robot says /c/…/a/…/t/.” Have the child “translate” the robot talk into a real word by blending the sounds (e.g., “cat”). This game adds fun role-playing to the blending process and can be highly engaging.

I Spy Blending Game:
Play a version of “I Spy” that encourages blending. For example, you could say, “I spy something that sounds like /b/…/e/…/d/,” and the child has to blend the sounds and guess “bed.” This game encourages listening to segmented sounds and practicing blending in a playful, low-pressure setting.

Decodable Books

Once you have practiced blending simple words with your student, you can continue practicing with decodable books. Decodable books are texts that have words following syllable/phonetic patterns. They are essential because they help children practice decoding systematically. At Brightly Reading, we have our own decodable books available for free. Access them on our online reader [here]. We also have a blog post that outlines other decodable books that you can use—find the blog post [here].

The Syllable Types

When a student knows all the letter-sound associations (all the phonemes and how they appear in written language), you can move on to teaching the six common syllable types. Students with sufficient phonological awareness development are able to identify syllables in spoken language.

What are the six syllable types, and why are they important?

Although students can decode using letter-sound associations, knowing the six main syllable types allows them to decode larger words.

The Six Syllable Types (in the order they should be taught):

1. Closed Syllable: A syllable that ends in a consonant, which typically makes the vowel sound short.
Example: “cat,” “bed,” “jump.”
Importance: Closed syllables help students recognize short vowel sounds, foundational for early reading.

2. Open Syllable: A syllable that ends in a vowel, usually making the vowel sound long.
Example: “go,” “he,” “me.”
Importance: Understanding open syllables helps students identify long vowel sounds, increasing their ability to read longer words.

3. Silent E Syllable: A syllable with a silent “e” at the end, making the preceding vowel sound long.
Example: “cake,” “time,” “rope.”
Importance: Silent e syllables teach vowel modification, essential for reading many common words.

4. Vowel Team Syllable: A syllable containing two vowels that together make one sound.
Example: “team,” “boat,” “rain.”
Importance: Recognizing vowel teams helps students decode words that follow this pattern.

5. R-Controlled Syllable: A syllable where a vowel is followed by an “r,” modifying the vowel sound.
Example: “car,” “her,” “bird.”
Importance: R-controlled syllables are common in English, and understanding them helps students read words where “r” modifies the vowel sound.

6. Consonant + le Syllable: A syllable ending with a consonant followed by “le,” forming a separate syllable.
Example: “table,” “apple,” “candle.”
Importance: Consonant + le syllables introduce students to common word endings, helping them read multisyllabic words.

Things to Keep in Mind

Take your time with each syllable type, and ensure the student has enough exposure to each one before moving on. Consider using spiral instruction, revisiting previously learned syllables.

Activities for practicing syllables:

• Sort words based on their syllable type.
• Read books at the child’s level together, identifying syllable patterns.

Teaching your child to read can be a long process. At Brightly Reading, we offer a free assessment to determine what level your child is at and what support they need. Do they have enough phonological skills? Is their phonemic awareness developed? Do they have adequate knowledge of letter-sounds? Do they know how to blend? Decode? Book a free assessment today!