Phonics Programs

the ABC's of learning
Tips for teaching children phonics

Author: admin

August 18, 2010

Posted in Tips for Parents | |

There are many phonics-teaching techniques that have been developed over the years to aid parents and school teachers.  Remember that no matter which program or techniques you choose to use, patience is the most important tool—for both you and the child you are trying to teach.  With a good attitude and lots of practice, these techniques can result in an exciting new learning experience for your child.

  • Model your program after the child’s interests. Children are more inclined to learn if their interests are included.  If they enjoy learning about different types of animals, include these words as your examples.
  • Short vowel sounds take more training than long vowel sounds. Because long vowel sounds simply make the sound of the letter, you will have to focus more on the short vowels like “u” in “duck” and “e” in “hen”.  Visual displays are a good way of getting this information across, so either construct or work with your child to make a wall display or poster that will serve as a friendly reminder. (more…)

Posted in Phonics and Hearing Loss | |

If you’re the parent of a child suffering from hearing loss, you’re probably wondering what exactly you’ll be facing when it comes to the areas of reading and vocabulary.  Many of these problems are related to “whole language” types of understanding, which means phonics could be useful in helping them to sound out words.  Depending on the type of hearing loss, it can be helpful if your child has a hearing aid from a trusted source like Miracle Ear.  Some children will be able to use the hearing aid to process spoken English, while others will only be able to use it to sense sounds.

One of the biggest obstacles in children with hearing loss is that vocabulary develops more slowly.  It is easier for these children to learn concrete words that refer to objects, such as ball, cat, and jump than it is to learn more abstract words.  Abstract words can include feelings, function words like the and an, and prepositions like before and after.  Words with multiple meanings cause extra difficulty. (more…)

Posted in Phonics Games | |

Today, it’s not uncommon for children to be more proficient at the Internet than their parents are.  That’s why the web is the perfect outlet for interactive phonics games.  As long as your computer is hooked up to a speaker, these sites will offer free ways for your child to explore the world of reading.  Complete with kid-friendly graphics and sounds, these games are sure to be hits.

Starfall: The site began in 2002 as a free service to motivate children to read.  In 2009 Starfall released the Kindergarten Reading & Language Art Program, which can be purchased by teachers or homeschooling parents.  Their website, however, still features all of the classic learning games and activities.  Online books feature characters like Zac the Rat and Gus the Duck, while the Art Gallery introduces children to classic artists like Vincent Van Gogh.  There is plenty for both parents and children to explore on this site. (more…)

Posted in Phonics History, Phonics Programs | |

The phonics method of teaching reading is a traditional but highly effective one, as proven by both the National Research Council in 1998 and the National Reading Panel in its 2000 report.  The basic idea consists of teaching children how to connect sounds with letters or groups of letters, which are then blended together to form new words.  This allows the reader to sound out vocabulary words, even if they don’t know the meaning.  While phonics is used today to teach the English language, the basic idea dates back to a Roman text The Doctrine of Littera, which stated that a letter consists of a sound, symbol, and name.  These three elements are what students in phonics programs learn.

The reason phonics works for English is that the language is based on an alphabetic principle.  Other systems can be logographic (Chinese) or syllabic (Japanese).  Some of the controversy about the phonics system has come from the fact that unlike Spanish, English spelling does not have a one-to-one correspondence, due to its roots in five different languages. (more…)

Posted in Phonics Programs | |

When John M. Shanahan created a phonetic study tape for his son Sean in the mid-1980s, he was going against the “modern” perspective on teaching reading.  However, it was far from a new learning technique.  Phonetic learning was the traditional way of learning to read before the 1930s, when professors decided that the technique was redundant and pointless.  Instead, the prevailing belief became that children would learn to read naturally if they were faced with simple words in context, as in the “Dick and Jane” schoolbooks.

However, this technique failed Shanahan’s son Sean, whereas phonetic techniques on tape worked.  This success, and the popularity of the tapes among his neighbors, inspired Shanahan to market his system as “Hooked On Phonics”.  He focused on advertising to sell the product, even going so far as to purchase the phone number 1-800-222-3334 (1-800-ABC-DEFG) for $10,000. (more…)