I have been trying to make my son more familiar with all the alphabet letters lately … I am teaching him the sound that each letter makes - so when he sees a letter, he pronounces the SOUND that the letter makes and not the name - do you think that it’s important to teach him the names of each letter as well or it’s fine if he just knows the sounds of the letters?
I like the idea of teaching the sounds first. I think it makes the whole process of decoding words they don’t know by sight a little easier for them.
I do think at some piont down the road you will need to introduce the names of the letters though.
my son also first started to make sounds of letters but now can say the names of letters…so i dont think its a problem even if he says sounds, later he will understand the names and start to say it…
Hi,
I have done a lot of research on this matter. It is really important to teach the sound first. Letter names are only used for dictionary reference and for spelling out loud. The sound is the very important part to start with. This is the guide I believe is best.
- Simple sounds of the alphabet - a, b, c etc
- Alternate sounds - the letter ‘c’ makes the /c/ and /s/ sound
- Two or more letters can make one sound /ea/, /ph/, /igh/,
- Then uncommon spellings which don’t usually follow too many rules eg cafe (french word),
As a last note, I don’t believe sight words should be taught as sight words. Break them done into the sounds so you baby/child can see the links to the sounds.
I am very passionate about teaching kids to read, write and spell and think the “Teach your baby to read” DVD’s are not the very best way. I have used the program for my daughter and it was brilliant in enabling her to be able to recognise a lot of animals and actions, but for reading I just see how many problems kids run into when the learn/memorise whole words.
Some kids learn to read pretty much without any help. Others are taught the wrong way and end up with a lot of problem.
Hope this helps.
Kylie
Yr 1 - 4 teacher
As a last note, I don’t believe sight words should be taught as sight words. Break them done into the sounds so you baby/child can see the links to the sounds. (TigerLily)
I think they are taught as sight words to enable kids to start reading books when they are still in stage 1. Once they learn more complicated sounds/letter combination, explain what you can.
BWT how do you explain “one”, “sure” (the “sh” part)?I have a list of words I can’t explain, would you help?
Totally agree with the order 
Stage 2. includes long vowels and thus the alphabet comes in, right?
my DS is already 3 yrs old and he began to read books by himself just after he turned 3. i have not used the doman method with him. i think he memorized the books that i read to him at first and his dad taught him how to sound out words (he already knew the letters of the alphabet by 2 yrs). he loves to read now but he mispronounces a lot of words - i sometimes try to correct him but since english is not my mother tongue, i am not confident about the pronunciation of some difficult words either. he also squints a lot when he has difficulty reading a word (takes him a while to probably sound it out). i have read about getting dyslexia from being taught the wrong way and i’d like to prevent that from happening to my DS.
Tiger Lily, what do you think I should do?
I agree that teaching the natural method as we learned reading books can bring good resuls but maybe this modern method can help children learn rapidly and easily. If you are worried about the pronounciation why dont you try buying books that come with CDS such as stories.
Hi All,
I probably should have specified more on sight words. Most sight words fit into English spelling patterns, but there are a few that do not fit. It is ok to tell a child that it is an exception when you come to it, but do not just give a heap of “sight” words without any explanation. It then teaches the child that there is no sense or pattern and will then begin to think there is no pattern anywhere. They are called sight words as they are so frequently used that we know them through sight, rather than spelling them out each time.
Good luck with spelling. You should check out the THRASS System. It shows on a chart all the different spelling choices. It makes so much sense to teach with and for kids to understand. http://www.thrass.com.au/
Kylie
Tx, Kylie Will look it up presently, I guess I was referring to exceptions.
Hi all.
Tigerlily, are you using the THRASS system with your child? How is it working for you? I know that English is very difficult in many ways but I fear that I, myself, would get mixed up with the chart.
Just a thought … I learned English through reading and “sense”, I was never taught any phonics and still don’t know any “rules” but I read just fine 
To me that’s proof that you don’t really need phonics except in difficult words or something like that…otherwise “sight words” work great!
Just my personal experience…
The trouble with phonics is that it can only really be taught when a child is old enough to talk and reading whole words can be taught much earlier. My daughter is 20 months old and in the last two months I have taught her the alphabet sounds only (she does not as far as I can tell know the names of the letters yet) I am now using the sounds she knows to teach her to decode 3 letter word combinations but she already has a sight vocabulary of a good few hundred words and I am using the short words she knows to start teaching phonics.
In some ways I wanted her to read her first book before starting phonics, but she has developed so rapidly with the reading and yet is still tto young to read a whole sentence out loud that I thought I’d start with the phonics. Once I have done the simple 3 letter combination words I will move to teach her the phonemes (2 letter sounds)
As for teaching sight words - anyone reading English will have to have a large sight reading vocabulary simply because a LOT of the words most commonly used in English reading do not follow phonetic rules - in fact most of the numbers are not phonetical (one, two, four, eight) and even the others follow the more complex rules of phonics. It is better to teach certainly the Dolch words as sight words because to decode these simple common words would waste a huge amount of time and cause a child to read much more slowly.