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A phoneme is the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in the
meaning of words.

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A word part that contains a vowel, or, in spoken language, a vowel sound.

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A broad term that includes phonemic awareness. In addition to
phonemes,
phonological awareness activities can involve work with rhymes, words, syllables, and onsets
and rimes.

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The understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes (sounds
of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in
written language).

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Phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write. It helps children hear, identify and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of individual letters and how those letters sound when they're combined will help children decode words as they read.

Understanding phonics will also help children know which letters to use when they are writing words.

Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch.

Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out. For example, when a child is taught the sounds for the letters t, p, a and s, they can start to build up the words: "tap", "taps", "pat", "pats" and "sat".

How is phonics taught?

Introducing young children to the joy and wonder of books requires a systematic teaching of phonics.

Synthetic phonics

The most widely used approach associated with the teaching of reading in which phonemes (sounds) associated with particular graphemes (letters) are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesised). For example, children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as cat apart into its three letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /k, æ, t/, and blend the phonemes together to form a word.

Analytical phonics

A popular approach in Scotland, this method is associated with the teaching of reading in which the phonemes associated with particular graphemes are not pronounced in isolation. Children identify (analyse) the common phoneme in a set of words in which each word contains the phoneme under study. For example, teacher and pupils discuss how the following words are alike: pat, park, push and pen.

Analogy phonics

A type of analytic phonics in which children analyse phonic elements according to the phonograms in the word. A phonogram, known in linguistics as a rime, is composed of the vowel and all the sounds that follow it, such as -ake in the word cake. Children use these phonograms to learn about "word families" for example cake, make, bake, fake.

Embedded phonics

An approach to the teaching of reading in which phonics forms one part of a whole language programme. Embedded phonics differs from other methods in that the instruction is always in the context of literature rather than in separate lessons, and the skills to be taught are identified opportunistically rather than systematically.

Understanding phonics at home

If you are a parent and need support to understand more about phonics to help your child with their learning, you can find out more on our Words for Life website.

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What is phonics? | National Literacy Trust

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How phonics is taught including: synthetic phonics, analytical phonics, analogy phonics and embedded phonics

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A specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin; characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

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The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds –
phonemes –
in spoken words. This is purely an auditory skill and does NOT involve a connection to the
written form of language.

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The Measured Mom - The Science of Reading

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Parts of spoken language that are smaller than syllables but larger than
phonemes.
An onset is the initial consonant sound of a syllable; a rime is the part of a syllable that contains
the vowel and all that follows it.

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Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book

Hide Video Transcript Show Video Transcript

Stephanie Fincher: Okay, so listen to my sounds. /sh/, /ip/ ... Your turn.

Students: /sh/, /ip/ ... ship.

Stephanie Fincher: Good job.

Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book

Hide Video Transcript Show Video Transcript

Stephanie Fincher: My word is bell. Say bell.

Students:

Bell.

Stephanie Fincher: Onset ...

Students: /b/

Stephanie Fincher: Rime ...

Students: /l/

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. You pull 'em apart.

[Teacher ands students use cards to show the two different sounds but pulling them apart.}

Stephanie Fincher: Go ahead and put 'em back together.

Sounds Only
We want students to focus on sounds as they're learning onset-rime. So we don't ask them to use letters. If they need an anchor, you can use manipulatives such as felt squares.

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Learn how and when to teach onset-rime, guide student practice, and assess learning.

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A grapheme is the smallest part of written language that represents a phoneme in
the spelling of a word.

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The use of direct instructional strategies involving visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic sensory systems to learn the phonological, morphemic, semantic, and syntactic layers of language along with the articulatory-motor aspects of language.

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Sand or shaving cream writing

Air writing (also called sky writing) reinforces the sound each letter makes through " muscle memory." It can also help reinforce commonly confused letter forms like b and d. Kids use two fingers as a pointer (keeping elbows and wrists straight) to write letters in the air. They say the sound each letter makes as they write it.

Encourage kids to imagine the letter as they write it. They can also pretend they're writing in a certain color.

Letters cut out of sandpaper can help kids retain a tactile (touch) memory of letters and their sounds. Kids trace each letter with their fingers while saying the sound of the letter out loud. They can feel the shape of the letters as they write.

Kids say each letter's sound as they lay it down. Once they've built the word, they read it out loud.

Read it, build it, write it

You can use this technique to teach sight words to one or more kids at a time. Kids each have a piece of paper with three boxes on it, labeled "Read," "Build," and "Write." They also have cards with sight words, magnetic letters (or tiles), and a marker.

Have kids read the sight word that's in the "Read" box together with you. Then have them build the word in the "Build" box, using their letters. Finally, have kids practice writing the word in the "Write" box.

Take the word bat. Kids tap an index finger to their thumb as they say the b sound. They tap their middle finger to their thumb as they say the short a sound. And they tap their ring finger to their thumb as they say the t sound. Then they put the sounds together to say bat.

Story sticks can help kids who struggle with reading comprehension visualize the elements of a story. Use a different color craft stick to represent each element. Yellow sticks might ask the question, "Who are the characters?" while blue sticks ask, "What is the setting?"

While reading together, hand kids a stick and ask them to answer the question on it. Or ask kids to highlight the elements of a printed story using the proper colors.

During shared reading, kids can use printable books. Printable books leave a space for kids to write in sight words or draw pictures to match sentences.

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Ginny Osewalt is a dually certified elementary and special education teacher with more than 15 years of experience in general education, inclusion, resource room, and self-contained settings.

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Multisensory instruction can help kids with reading issues like dyslexia learn to read. Here are a few examples of multisensory reading techniques teachers use.

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The process of transforming sounds to pronunciations during decoding.

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Phonological Recoding - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

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G. Vallar, in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology, 2017

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The ability to convert a word from print to speech.

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The rules that govern how to read and write, including how to hold a book, recognize letters, and understand the relationship between letters and sounds.

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Words in two languages that share a similar spelling, pronunciation, and meaning.

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Pairs of words that are spelled the same or nearly the same in two languages but do not share the same meaning.

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Understanding and appreciation of the forms and the functions of printed language.

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Print awareness (also called concepts of print) is the understanding that print carries meaning, that books contain letters and words. Print awareness also includes an understanding of what books are used for and how a book "works" - how to turn pages, how to find the top and bottom of a page, and how to identify the title and the front and back covers.

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The understanding that written letters represent spoken sounds and that these sounds go together to make words.

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The ability to recognize a word effortlessly and rapidly. The quick and effortless reading of words in or out of context.

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A phoneme/grapheme pairing.

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Words in which each letter represents its most common sound.

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FreeReading is an open-source instructional program that helps educators teach early literacy. FreeReading contains a 40-week scope and sequence that can supplement an early literacy core or basal program.

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Words that can be identified on the basis of sound/spelling relationships and spelling patterns that have been previously taught.

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Irregular words (e.g., high-frequency and story words) that are explicitly taught prior to reading text.

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Words that are neither wholly decodable nor previously taught sight words.

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Regular and irregular words that appear often in printed text.

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Affixes are linguistic elements added to a base word (or root) to modify its meaning or function. They can be prefixes, suffixes, infixes, or circumfixes, and they play an important role in word formation and grammar.

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What are affixes? | Reading | Khan Academy

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A word part added to the beginning of a root word that changes its meaning. They are affixes that come before root words.

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A word part added to the end of a root word that changes its meaning. They are affixes that follow root words.

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Suffixes | English For Kids | Mind Blooming

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Base word; a single word that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful words or parts.

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The accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate with appropriate prosody.

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Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression.Fluent reading builds stamina for reading lengthy or complex texts. Reading fluency serves as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

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The rhythm, melody, and intonation of speech. It involves the patterns of stress, pitch, volume, and tempo used when speaking. Prosody plays a key role in conveying meaning, emotions, and emphasis in communication.

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The ability to read with appropriate intonation, rhythm, and emotion, making the reading sound natural and engaging. It involves adjusting pitch, tone, and pace to reflect the meaning of the text and enhance comprehension and enjoyment.

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The smallest unit of language that has its own meaning, either a word or a part of a word.

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(Lecture-4), What is Morpheme?  Morpheme as a word, Words having two or more morphemes

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How quickly and accurately a reader reads connected text.

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A group of words that share a common root or base word, along with various affixes (prefixes, suffixes, etc.) that modify or build on that root. These words are related in meaning and often belong to the same part of speech or can have different grammatical forms.

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What is a Word Family? | English & Language Arts

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Teaching your students about word families? This Word Family Teaching Wiki offers you all you need to know on the topic, and includes some fun resources too!

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A word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word.

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SYNONYMS for Kids - What are synonyms? - Words that have the same meaning

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Words that can be pictured, felt, or heard, such as cottage, scalding, or shrill.

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Words that are difficult to demonstrate or picture, such as cousin, democracy, or reluctant.

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Authors Lauren Fink, Cecilia Durojaye, Tina Roeske, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, Pauline Larrouy-Maestri

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How Do We Learn and Why Do We Use Abstract Concepts and Words

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Grouping things together, also called categorizing, is fundamental for humans. We can form categories such as people, tools, and buildings. Concepts are what we mentally associate with categories. For example, we associate cats with what they look like and how they behave. “Cat” is a concrete concept, meaning that it refers to a specific animal that we can point to. Some concepts, such as “truth” or “sympathy,” do not refer to concrete objects you can point to. These are called abstract concepts. Abstract words—the words that we use to express abstract concepts—make up more than 70% of adult speech. Children use fewer abstract words because they are harder to learn. How do we learn and use abstract concepts, from emotions to numbers? Do we need more help from others to learn abstract concepts? In this article, we address these questions and discuss current research on abstract concepts.

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Words that are opposite or nearly opposite in meaning.

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Sight words are common words that kids recognize instantly without sounding them out. Recognizing words by sight helps kids become faster, more fluent readers. Many sight words are tricky to read and spell and they aren't spelled the way they sound.

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Words or phrases that give readers hints or suggestions to the meaning of unfamiliar words.

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The skillful use of words in speech and writing. It involves choosing words that are appropriate for the context, audience, and purpose, and using them in a way that effectively conveys meaning, tone, and emotion.

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The literal meaning of a word, without considering any emotional associations or secondary meanings it might have. It is the dictionary definition of a word, the straightforward, objective meaning that everyone would generally understand.

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The emotional or cultural associations that a word carries, in addition to its literal or denotative meaning. These associations can be positive, negative, or neutral and vary based on personal experiences, cultural context, or societal norms.

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Creating meaning through personal response and reflection.

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A method or technique used by writers to support the development of characters, themes, plot, or ideas within a story. It involves providing structure or guidance to help readers better understand complex concepts or narrative developments as they unfold.

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Scaffolding in Education (Explained in 4 Minutes)

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An approach to teaching reading and writing that emphasizes learning words and language in context, rather than focusing on phonics or individual letter sounds in isolation. The whole language method encourages students to recognize words, phrases, and concepts as a whole and understand the meaning of texts through exposure to real, meaningful language experiences.

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EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | www.ebsco.com

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Whole Language is an educational philosophy centered on teaching reading and writing through meaningful and authentic experiences, rather than through traditional direct instruction methods. Emerging from grassroots efforts by educators between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, Whole Language emphasizes the importance of students actively engaging in the decision-making process of language use. The core tenets of this approach prioritize holistic learning, where children learn to read and write in a natural context using authentic literature and personal expression, akin to how they acquire spoken language. In a Whole Language classroom, instruction often involves strategies like read-alouds, process writing, and the use of miscue analysis to enhance comprehension and fluency. Rather than focusing on isolated phonics or spelling drills, Whole Language advocates believe that skills develop organically through rich, context-driven experiences. This pedagogical approach also encourages collaboration among students, fostering a learning community where individuals support each other’s literacy journeys. While Whole Language gained substantial support, it faced criticism in the 1990s as standardized test scores began to decline, leading to a broader discussion about balancing direct phonics instruction with Whole Language practices. This debate eventually gave rise to a more integrated approach to literacy education that seeks to incorporate the strengths of both methodologies.

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The ability to understand, interpret, and make sense of information, whether it's written, spoken, or visual. In reading, reading comprehension specifically refers to the ability to understand and process the meaning of a text, including grasping its ideas, themes, and details.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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The set of rules, principles, and structures that govern the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. It focuses on how words combine to form grammatical sentences and how different sentence elements, like subjects, predicates, and objects, are organized.

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The branch of linguistics that studies how context influences the meaning of language in communication. Unlike semantics, which focuses on the literal meaning of words and sentences, pragmatics examines how people use language in real-life situations, considering factors like social context, relationships, tone, and intent.

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It’s the contextual meaning of our language. You might be asking – how is that different from semantics? It’s the ‘contextual’ part. When you know the semantics of a language, you know the vocabulary of that language. That is, you know what words and sentences mean in a literal sense. When you know the pragmatics of a language, you go beyond literal meaning and understand the subtle art of conversation. If you’re looking for something to be grateful for today, you can thank your knowledge of pragmatics for how you take social, cultural, and situational factors into consideration when communicating with language. For example, your pragmatic knowledge is what allows you to do things like politely hedge a request, cleverly read between the lines, negotiate turn-taking norms in conversation, and navigate ambiguity in context. We’ll look at some examples of these later on. The takeaway? Semantics = literal meaning. Pragmatics = meaning in context.

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The branch of linguistics that focuses on the meaning of words, phrases, sentences, and texts. It involves studying how language conveys meaning, both at the level of individual words (lexical semantics) and how these meanings combine in larger units like sentences (compositional semantics).

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The branch of linguistics that studies the structure and formation of words. It focuses on how words are built from smaller units called morphemes, which are the smallest units of meaning in a language.

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The conventional system of writing in a language, including the rules and standards for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and the use of other symbols (like hyphens or apostrophes). It governs how words are represented in written form.

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The branch of linguistics that studies the sound systems of languages, focusing on how sounds function and interact within a particular language. It looks at the organization, patterns, and rules governing speech sounds (called phonemes) and how they combine to form words and sentences.

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The speed at which a person reads. Pacing involves reading at an appropriate rate that balances speed with comprehension. A fluent reader adjusts their pacing to ensure they understand the text while maintaining smooth, uninterrupted reading.

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Pacing in Literature: Definition & Examples | SuperSummary

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Pacing (PAY-sing) is the rate at which a story develops. Narrative pace is controlled through several elements, including the length of scenes, the delivery and depth of description, and the rate and intensity of the action. Genre can also play into pacing, as the plot of an action-adventure story will likely move faster than that of a historical drama.