Phonics

Phonics is recognizing and knowing all the sounds that can be made by letters. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, but there are 44 sounds (phonemes). Some letters join together to make new sounds, e.g., sh in sh-i-p, oi in c-oi-n, ay in p-l-ay. When children learn phonics, they are taught the Speech Sound Correspondence (often abbreviated to SSC which means understanding the sound made by the letters. Along with the phonological skill of phonemic awareness, phonics is an essential foundational skill for reading. A good understanding of phonics helps you read and spell words that you don’t know. For example a child can’t sound out a word if they don’t firstly know the sounds. Phonics describes the relationship between the sounds of a language and how they are visually represented by symbols or letters. One of the most important components of reading an alphabetically based writing system, such as English, is learning this code and how to use it.