WHAT IS A PHONEME?

Today brings another sketch note to help you understand the jargon that surrounds literacy learning — What is a phoneme?

The word phoneme comes from the Greek word phonos – meaning sound or voice. A phoneme is the smallest sound unit within oral words. We say phonemes and we write graphemes. Some words have a direct match between the phonemes -oral sounds and the written letters (graphemes)

Dog has 3 sounds and 3 letters. Often written words and oral sounds don’t match up, so the word boat has 3 sounds /b/ /oa/ /t/ but 4 letters (boat). In linguistics, sounds are always highlighted in slash marks. Head over to my free library to get the phoneme poster.

Tiny Steps To Big Reading Success

Often children struggle to read because the alphabet is a code and they cannot connect the parts of spoken language to the written form.

Countless research studies conclude that poor phonological awareness — the ability to recognise and manipulate sounds of spoken words is a common cause of poor reading skills. All children should receive phonological awareness training, we should not be waiting to fail, and then offer intervention.

I am all about tiny steps to big reading success. That is why I love using my decodable alphabet with beginner readers. Building and manipulating words from the very beginning is crucial and leads to fluency. All children benefit from explicit, systematic instruction, but for a few, it is crucial to their success.

For more practical advice about learning to read, check out my parent’s guide here.

To check out games and activities that develop early reading skills, go here.

And 10 ways to support early readers go here.