An over-reliance on phonics can lead to confusion with some words. The English language is a tricky beast, and frequently the pronunciations of words seem to be entirely disconnected from phonics. Need some examples? Read on.

• Said: Compare to aid and braid
• Does: Compare to hoes, goes, toes, etc.
• The: Compare to she, we, me, etc.
• One: Compare to phone, shone, throne, etc.
• Was: Compare to has

In addition, any word featuring the letter cluster ough can prove difficult, as we already discussed in “How Does Phonics Work?” To refresh your memory, consider words like enough, through, bough, and bought.How can you deal with teaching these tricky words to your child? First, emphasize that making mistakes with spelling and pronunciation is an important part of learning (you don’t have to tell them that you make the same mistakes, unless you want to). After that, the easiest way to learn these words is simply by exposure and memorization (the “whole-word” approach to learning). Nightly storybook sessions are a great way to introduce your child to some of the more common tricky words, while also encouraging a love of reading that will last them their whole life.In the case of homophones, make sure that your child is able to differentiate not only between spellings, but also between meanings. Common mistakes like the confusion between your and you’re, their, there, and there, and hear and hear begin, like a love of reading, in childhoodand like a love of reading, they can last for well into adulthood.Learning to deal with tricky phonics words won’t be easy, so don’t expect your child to get everything the first time around. Instead, have them focus on learning a little something new every day. The best part is, there will always be something new to learn.