Phonics for Reading

3 Ways To Build on Phonics For Reading Success 

1. Read out loud early and often

A strong spoken/ listening vocabulary is the most powerful factor in a child’s reading success. 

Being familiar with a large chunk of spoken language allows a child to recognize a word when he or she has used phonics sounds to pronounce it correctly.  

This is the aha! moment of reading. Success or failure turns on this recognition. 

Reading out loud is hands down the best way to give your child this enormously beneficial tool.

2. Use the best (that means accurate) phonics rules

In order to sound out a word a student needs to know what each letter “says”.  Phonics gives them these key sounds.

But are all phonics sounds alike?

Please, don’t be fooled by how vastly different phonics programs look. With the exception of English Decoder they nearly all teach the same thing, a standard set of sounds/ rules called Orton and Guilliam phonograms.

Dear phonics proponents,
I have a shock for you!

Half the time these standard phonics rules do not work. 

That means your young reader:

  1. learns a sound or rule and
  2. then uses it to read a word and

Broken! 3. does not pronounce the word correctly 

  Enter English Decoder. These are accurate phonics rules. They work  nearly 95% of the time!  

With accurate rules, your young reader:

  1. learns a sound or rule and
  2. then uses it to read a word and

  Fixed! 3. does pronounce the word correctly. 

This is the part of reading many parents dread.  They know the rules and sounds they are teaching do not work all the time.  What they don’t know is how anyone manages to read with phonics at all. These observant parents are onto a sticky dilemma.  

Gratefully it is one that has been solved!

People learn to read with broken phonics rules because they slowly:

  • note certain sound patterns or
  • memorize words.  

This depends on learning style.  But, what if your child does not pick up these patterns on their own? What if they naturally have a woefully un-detailed memory!!  This child, likely a mechanical thinker, may fail without better rules. English Decoder delivers these better rules.  The patterns are built in and taught clearly.

3.  Customize your reading practice

Begin reading with real sentences and interesting words. This keeps students interested in participating.

Some children are ‘just facts’ type learners and they need a bit of special treatment.

These “just the facts” types need word lists, flashcards and worksheets.  

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