Phonics and Reading
It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading.
Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading.
Language comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together.
Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words.
Phonics
Phonics is a method of teaching children how to read and write by focusing on the sounds and letters that form words. Written letters of the alphabet represent the sounds we use in spoken language. Through phonics, children learn to: Recognise sounds and their associated letters.
Read Write Inc. is a popular phonics scheme. Like all phonics schemes, it teaches children the sounds in English, the letters that represent them, and how to form the letters when writing.
Oxford Owl have lots of free Read Write Inc. Phonics resources to help your child, including eBooks, practice sheets and parent films. We suggest you start by watching this film for parents: What is Read Write Inc. Phonics?
Watch the Sound Pronunciation Guide video to help you. Make sure they say sounds like ‘mmm’, not letter names like ‘em’
You will find a useful phonics audio guide to all these sounds in our Sound Pronunciation Guide video. It is really important to say the sounds clearly to help your child learn them. We say ‘mmmm’ not ‘muh’ and ‘lllll’ not ‘luh’ when teaching the sounds. This really helps children when they learn to blend sounds together to read words.