If you take a closer look at the pronunciations of the words in the English language, you will notice that words sound different even though they have the same letters. For example, consider the words go, and dog, both of the words have the letter o in it. But the words sound very different. This is because the sound of the words has a lot to do with the phoneme of the letters and that is what we would be discussing today in details, the phonemic awareness and how you can improve it.

Let’s take a look at some of the rhymes, and you would get a clearer idea about the topic on hand –

“How now Brown Cow?”

Or,

“Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses”

Look at the words from both of the examples again. The words sound very similar, don’t they? This because they are from the same phonemic group.

Today, you would learn everything about phonemes and phonemic awareness. After you have gone through the whole guide, you will have a detailed idea about the following topics –

So, let’s get started, shall we?

What Are the Phonemes and Why Should You Learn About Them?

Phonemes have a very close connection to the pronunciations. While the pronunciation tells us about how a particular word should sound like, a phoneme determines the sound of a letter or a cluster of letters.

However, a letter can have different phonemes as it depends on how the letter is used in any word.

Do I sound confusing?

Let me help you with an example!

Think of the letters C and K. Although they are two different words, they can both represent the same /k/ sound depending on the word they are being used. For example, consider the word Cross and Kill. Here, both C and K letter sounds the same, like a /k/.

So, why does it happen?

To find the answer to that question, you will have to go to the basic of the origin of the languages. There are some languages what you can call a phonemic language.

It means that a language has individual letters to express all the sounds that the language has. Languages like Spanish, German, or Polish fall into this category. You will find individual letters that connect to all the sounds that these languages encompass.

On the other hand, there are languages that don’t have distinctive letters associated with different sounds. English will fall into this category.

There are 44 different sounds or phonemes in the English language, but there are only 26 letters to express these sounds.

That’s why a certain letter can have multiple sounds. Sometimes multiple letters are used to express a particular sound.

For example, the letter P typically express the sound /p/ and H expresses /h/ but often they can team together to express the /f/ sound.

Even the word phoneme sounds like fonim!

Read More: Inventive Spelling and Its Connection to Phonological Awareness

Phonemic Spelling: The Other Kind of Spelling!

So, I have already about how the word phoneme sounds like fonim. You must be wondering about why don’t we use that spelling instead. It would make things much simpler.

There are a lot of reasons for us to use the actual “phoneme” spelling. I will not go in details about that.

However, there is a different kind of spelling in English too. This spelling is used to identify the correct pronunciation of different words.

That different kind of spelling is called as the phonemic spelling.

By definition, phonemic spelling is the kind of spelling to identify the sound of a word.

Now let’s take you back to the example in hand again. The phonemic spelling of the word phoneme is /ˈfəʊniːm/.

I know what you are thinking – since when the English language has those weird-looking letters?!

If you remember, I have told you already that the English language has 44 sounds. There are actually 44 different symbols to express those sounds. These letters are called the phonemic letters or phonemic symbols. 

I will get to that part later on this guide and will introduce you to all the different phonemic symbols.

Right now, all you need to know that the phonemic spelling is mandatory if you want to master the English language and have a sharp phonemic awareness.

If you want to have the perfect pronunciation and have a strong command over the speaking skill in English, you must possess the phonemic awareness. There is no way around.

Buckle up!

We would dig deep, very deep about the topic today!

Learning or Teaching Phonemic Awareness: It’s Not an Easy Task

Now that you have a brief idea about what phoneme and phonemic spelling is, let’s start talking about the elephant in the room – how can you teach or learn phonemic awareness.

There are three angles here to talk about the topic. You can be a –

1. Parent trying to teach your children
2. Teacher trying to teach your students or
3. Student trying to learn the phonemic awareness
4. Adults trying to learn English as a second language

I am some suggestions that help all of you who are suffering from the issue.

What Should a Parent Do While Teaching the Children?

Every child has a hard time in the beginning while learning about sounds and pronunciation as things seem too confusing.

You can identify some issues that would tell you that your children are having problems with the phonemes. Try looking for these issues in your children –

• Your child cannot think of the rhyming words that sound similar, like rat, bat, and cat.
• He or she seems uninterested in word games or rhyming games.
• Your children often pronounce the same words wrong, like, despite correcting multiple times, he or she misspeaks the word “right,” or “crayon.”

These are some common symptoms that signify that your children need help with the phonemes.

So, what can you do help them overcome the issues?

There are a lot of great ways that you can follow in this case.

Strategies that a Parent Can Follow

As a parent, the saying “Learning begins at home” should be your bible. There are so much you can do to help your child with their education. If you help them out with their studies, they would get a head start and will be more curious about learning a new thing. It also cultivates self-discovery for them.

So, without wasting any more words, lets help with those teaching strategies!

• Get yourself accustomed to the study materials your children will be learning in the school first. Try consulting with the school teachers about whether they would teach phonemic awareness at school or not.
• If they don’t teach these topics at school, you should make time at home teaching the basics. You can even suggest the teachers to include the topics to teach these basic things at school.
• If your children have passed the age when teachers teach these fundamental things, ask them whether they can make one-on-one sessions for your children.
• You should try reading books together. It would be even better if you try reading the rhyming books or poetries.
• You can try different apps or websites that focus on building vocabulary skill. While practicing the vocabulary enhancement skills, you should ask them to spell the words. If he or she makes any mistake, you can correct them. SpellQuiz can help you in this case, with a massive collection of spelling and vocabulary practice sessions.

Helpful Activities That Parents Can Follow 

Here are some effective activities that would help them with the phonemic skill-building –

• Try designing quiz games on “think of as many words starting with the /ch/, /sh/ or /ph/.” It would help them brainstorm and make them discover more words with unique phonemes.
• Try working on creating new tongue twisters, it doesn’t have to have any meaning, just combine words that have similar sounds. For example, “Nobody was nice to Nancy’s neighbor Nick.”
• You can try working on the rhyming words. Just like creating tongue twisters, you can make rhymes. You can ask your child to find rhyming words. Ask him/her to find as many words rhyming with bot. He or she will be trying finding words like cot, dot, hot, rot, etc.

What Should a Teacher Do While Teaching the Students?

A teacher would face more problems while teaching the phonemes.

Why?

A parent will have to teach a maximum of two children at a time, but the teacher has to teach the whole class. As every child learns at a different speed, the teacher should make his or her lessons more personalized.

Still, the teacher can try giving tasks to a batch and see how the progress of each individual. While teaching a teacher might notice the following issues among the student. So, he or she should be prepared to face the following issues –

• The students might not be able to combine the sounds together to construct a complete word. For example, it is only normal for a student to combine phonemes like /p/, /i/, and /ck/ together to make a complete word like pick.
• If you assign the task of filling the blanks with proper phoneme to make new words, some students will fail to do so. For example, if you ask your students to substitute the /f/ in fate to /m/ to build mate, some students will fail.
• The most common problem among the kids is to figure out the number of syllables in a word. For example, it’s not very easy for the young child to identify the number of syllables in complicated words like particular.

There could be a number of different other issues that a student might face while learning the phonemes. The ones that I have discussed are just some of the common issues.

I think you now have an idea about the problems you could be facing in the classroom. So, you have to be prepared and be creative to solve the issues.

Still, I have found out some creative solutions that you can apply in different situations. Check them out.

Strategies That Teachers Can Follow in the Classroom

The concept of phonemes is quite hard for a lot of children to grasp. Sadly, there is no particular training that can help the teachers in these situations.

However, I really hope that the following solutions might help you. Just make sure you are creative if you get stuck in a unique problem with any student.

• Provide a list of all the phoneme to the class on the first day. It would be helpful for the students if they see the chart over and over again.
• Try to follow the same idea you follow while teaching the regular alphabet to your students. Think of the phonemic alphabet to be a different alphabet.
• Always teach your students with examples. Examples help the student to understand the use cases. It would make the learning process more practical.
• Start your lessons with extremely easy examples first so that things become easy. It would be better if you can show all the phonemic letters in use in the mono-syllable words.
• You should give one-on-one lessons to the students who lag behind among the peer.
• Identify the exact phonemes that students find the hardest and try giving as many examples as possible for those phonemes.
• Try including more books on the topic in the syllabus. The more the students would read, the faster they can learn about them.
• Rather than giving the same lesson to the whole batch, you can try dividing them into smaller groups with similar learning speed. It would make things easier for you.
• Rhymes are the best study material for young children for learning the phonemes. Let them enjoy the rhymes, and they wouldn’t even notice that they are practicing the phonemes.
• Lastly, be patient and don’t rush, it would make them afraid of the lessons.

Try to Understand a Kid’s Perspective: They Might Not Like Learning Phonemes!

I know how learning phonemes feels like. No, I wasn’t fan of it either, I always hated it! I always nagged to my mom and often hid inside the closet so that I don’t have to read the book on phonemes.

So, if your child hates it too, it’s only normal for them!

A kid might say these things often if they are having problems with phonemes –

• “I don’t know how pit and lit sound the same, they are not the same!”
• “I hate rhyming games!”
• “There is no word that sounds like flush!”
• “I don’t know how many syllables are in tomato!”
• “I have a tummy ache! (obviously, a lie) I don’t want to read now.”

Do your kids say almost the same kind of things whenever you are trying to teach them the phonemic awareness?

You shouldn’t feel frustrated as almost all the kids at some point show these symptoms. You will have to be patient and try to figure out some ideas that don’t feel like you were teaching them phonemes.

The key is to teach them phonemes in a way so that they don’t feel like being pressured or “being taught.”

Strategies That the New Learners Can Adopt

I have figured out some simple solutions that can help a child while learning the phonemes. These strategies can also be applied to the new learners, I am talking about the ESL learners in particular in this case.

The first thing that a leaner should try is to admit that they are learning a new thing, and it would take some time to master it. This fact is true for anything, not just the phonemes.

The second suggestion would be making a personal list of all the issues a learner is facing. No matter how many strategies I give you, it won’t help you much. I have said this countless times, everyone learns at a different speed, and everyone faces different and unique issue while learning.

So, you should make a list of the issues and start working on those particular issues. 

The third tip only for ESL learners. As you are new to learning English, you can compare the rules of your mother tongue to the rules of the English language. Every language is unique and different from the other one, but there can be a lot of rules that are common.

Helpful Tips for New Learners

Also, you can try the following tips, they could be helpful for you –

• Try to be willing to work with your teacher. The moment you and your teacher co-operate, things change dramatically, in a positive way.
• Be patient, don’t give yourself a hard time.
• Be open to reading a lot, the more you read, the better you would become.
• Watch movies or TV series, try to learn pronunciation from the dialogues.
• Sing your favorite English songs out loud. If you are shy, you can always try singing in the bathroom while taking a shower. Surely, you will make a lot of mistakes, but you will learn also.
• While you are listening to someone, pay attention to individual words. Concentrate on how the words sound.

It’s a good idea to go through the sight words list before jumping into tougher learning activities. 

The Psychology of Learning

Learning a new thing can be stressful and time-consuming. However, you should never stop trying.

If you are having a hard time, tell yourself this, “I can do it, I will do it, and no one can stop it!”

This is a powerful auto-suggestion, and it would help you stay motivated. Moreover, your subconscious mind would try even harder to help you achieve your goals.

This psychological technique has helped me a lot achieving different issues, especially in those stressful engineering exam nights!

There is no doubt that phonemic awareness plays a great role in mastering the English language, especially speaking skills.

Different researchers have found out that phonemic awareness plays a strong role in the overall language learning process. With better phonemic awareness, a learner can master other aspects of English very quickly and easily. Consider the phonemes to be the base that you would build the whole English language learning skills on.

Tips for the Teachers to be a Rockstar Among the Kids

Teaching Phonemes Is Like Gardening!

When you are planning to do gardening, there are some steps that you will have to follow for a better harvest and healthier plants. Let’s call them the pre-requisites of gardening.

Why am talking about gardening all on a sudden?

Believe it or not, teaching Phonemes Is Like Gardening!

There are some steps that you should follow before you start teaching phonemes too. If your students go through those steps before starting the actual phoneme learning process, they will have a stronger base and will certainly master the skill quickly.

Let’s call them the “helpful considerations!”

The Lessons Should be Short!

Students, especially children, have a shorter attention span. The span becomes even shorter when they are aware of the fact that they are studying.

Your lessons shouldn’t be longer than 15 minutes.

A young student can’t have a solid attention span longer than that period. This time can be variable but should be longer that it.

Plan the Lessons Early Share It with Your Students

If the students know what they would be learning on a particular lesson beforehand, they can connect to the lessons better. You can even share the study materials prior to the lesson too.

It would make them prepared for the lessons. The preparedness makes the lessons easier to grasp.

Moreover, the students will feel connected, and it also gives a feeling of “being in a team.”

Use Stories or Themes

If you can manage to incorporate a theme to your lessons, students would enjoy your lessons a lot.

For example, if you can teach using stories of Cinderella or Peter Pan and somehow teach about phonemes, students would pay more attention.

This technique would make the teaching process more spontaneous and light-hearted.

Read Together, Learn Together!

Now, I will talk about a common yet often overlooked teaching technique – shared reading. Shared reading is a method where the teacher and the student read a text together.

What will have to do?

You and all your students will have the text (a book) in hand. Then you will read a sentence from the text. Then, your students will read the same text after you.

It might not seem like a lot, but it helps in a unique way.

If a student doesn’t know the pronunciation of a particular word, he or she will learn it instantly from you. Then, he or she would read it aloud along with the peer.

They will learn a lot of new words in this way too.

Revise Again and Again!

It is nothing but normal for a student to forget a previous lesson. So, you will have to make them go through the previous lessons.

As I have said earlier, your lessons will not be longer than 15 minutes. You can teach new lessons first within the 15 minutes, then, spend about 10 minutes discussing a previous lesson.

But you should mix things up. Rather than discussing the immediate previous lesson, talk about a random lesson that you have already taught them.

It would make the base stronger.

Teach Two-Part Words Before Teaching Syllables

When you are trying to teach the phonemes to the students, you have to teach them about syllables sooner or later. It’s a mandatory section of the phoneme teaching.

However, young children often go through a hard time identifying syllables in a word.

So, how can you make the process easier?

The trick is to teach them two-part words first. When two individual words combine together to make a new word, the new word is called a two-part word.

For example, cowboy or seashore are some great and simple examples of two-part words.

Ask your students, what comes to their mind when they hear the word cowboy or seashore?

Children can easily segment these words in two sections, like, breaking cowboy to cow and boy. They will not even know, but they would be getting lessons on syllables.

Once, they master segmenting the two-part words, you can go move to the three-part words.

Finding the Odd Word Out?

To help the students with rhyming skills, you can play another game. The game will help them improve their identification skill.

First, give them a primary word. Then, give them two to three options and ask them which of the words sound similar to the primary word.

For example, draw a cat on the blackboard. The image would raise attention among the students. Here, the primary word is cat.

Now, give them three options – hat, sun, and run. Then, ask them which of three words sound similar to cat.

This technique will help them with word rhyming skill.

Guidelines Shared by Linguistic Experts 

The Tips and suggestions that I have shared in the previous section are some of the ideas that I have found useful over time. However, linguistic experts have worked hard to make the phoneme teaching methods more fruitful.

It’s a step-by-step guideline that is designed to help you teach a particular phoneme learning task.

Suppose you are planning to teach a particular lesson to your class. To make the lesson more effective, you can follow these suggested techniques –

1. Teach them phonemic spelling instead of the regular spelling. Each of the sounds in a word can be represented by more than one regular letters. For example, if you are teaching them the sound of cheese, you should teach them by writing /ch/-/ee/-/z/. In this way, your students will know the number of sounds there is in a particular word.
2. Use force while teaching words with continuant sounds (Mmmm, Ssss, Rrrrr, etc.). These sounds are easy to pick up and identify. So, if you put extra force, your students can pick the correct sound of the word easily. For example, while teaching words like ring, use extra force and pronounce it like Rrrring.
3. Teach your students a simple trick – the initial and the finishing sounds are easy to identify while the middle part is quite tricky to find.
4. Teach them some common combinations that are used to construct a word. The Consonant-Vowel (CV) pattern comes first, then comes the Vowel-Consonant (VC) pattern, the Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) pattern comes in the last place.

Onset and Rimes: The Best Tool for Teaching Phonemic Awareness

Over the years, teachers have used a few effective tools that help a learner to learn the basic of phonemic awareness.

As you know, there are a lot of patterns among the English words. If you can teach them the common patterns, your students will learn about all the other words having the same pattern automatically.

It would be much faster and methodological to teach the patterns than teaching all the words individually.

As we are on the topic, I should tell you about the most effective tool for identifying patterns and teaching phonemes.

The tool is often called the Onset and Rimes method. Some even call it Onset and Rhymes.

So, what is the fundamental idea behind this tool?

Onset refers to the initial or the first part of the phonological structure of a word. On the other hand, Rime refers to the common string of letters. Often, the Rime section gives the word a pattern.

Sounds confusing?

Take a look at this example. Let’s consider the word band. In this word, the onset part is /b/ and the rime part is -and.

Now, let’s talk about the pattern. As you can see, the rime part can be found in a lot of words. For example, hand, land, rand, sand, etc. have the same rime part in them.

Teaching this technique would be very effective as students have the idea of onset and rimes or syllables way before having a concrete knowledge of phonemic awareness.

Now, I am going to tell you how you teach the onset and rime to your students.

Start with Wordplay

Before you begin your lessons on onset and rimes, you should intrigue your students with some wordplay. Rather than teaching them different rules, your lessons can be much more playful if you start with rhymes.

Why should you do it?

Rhymes are always catchy and get much more exposure. Moreover, the children will be happier if you can make the lessons more playful.

Don’t you believe me?

Okay, just start your next lesson with this phrase – there is a wocket in my pocket! If your students are children, you will see them giggling and laughing just hearing the word wocket!

This is a nifty trick as you can instantly capture their attention as they are hearing something is funny in a general sense.

However, you would be planting a seed for something bigger, you just have taught them an example of onset and rimes. Wocket and pocket have the same phonetic pattern.

The Books That Can Help

The example that I just used in the last section is actually the name of a children’s book. The famous book There is a Wocket in My Pocket is the creation of the famous writer Dr. Seuss.

As you have already made them curious with the catchy name, you can easily make them read the book. This book is the perfect study material for the children to develop the skill of onset and rimes.

Why is that?

The book is about imaginary creatures that sound almost like a real-life object. Some of the names of the imaginary creatures are – Zamp in the lamp, Zuk in my book.

I don’t think I have to explain more on this topic.

I can think of another great book that you can give your students to read. It’s called Faint Frogs Feeling Feverish. As you can guess, the book is full of fascinating tongue twisters.

Tongue twisters are extremely helpful for the kids who are trying to learn to master phonemic awareness.

There is another great book full of smart tongue twisters called Terrifically Tantalizing Tongue Twisters.  

Here is a small list of the books that you try in your class –

1. Sheep on a Ship
2. Moses Supposes His Toeses Are Roses
3. Down by the Bay

Using the Books in the Classroom

Okay, so you now know some of the names of the books that you can bring in your classroom for your students.

The question is, how can you make the best of these book for teaching phonemes?

I have an idea that can help you in this case. Here are some tips that you might find helpful –

• Rather than reading once, re-read the stories a few times.
• After each reading session, discuss on how the authors have played with the words and language.
• Ask your students to predict the sound of the words.
• Ask them if they can identify any pattern among different words.
• Finally, ask them if they can think other words that have the same pattern.

Introducing Word Families

If you have followed the previous tips, this step would be quite easy.

Which tips am I talking about?

– Creating the list of similar sounding words that have the same patterns in it.

By creating the list, you are actually helping them building a word family chart.

Colin Hawkins and Jacqui Hawkins are the masterminds behind this strategy. Their children Tog the Bog is a great book that can help a child with onset and rimes. This book teaches the children to create a word family chart.

The creation of different word family chart can be perfect homework or assignments for the students.

Direct Intervention: Your Last Bullet in the Pistol!

Till now, the strategies that I have shared on onset and rimes should make the student intrigued enough to practice all by themselves.

However, not every child will have the same capability or creativity. You cannot push them too hard ever, it would kill the curiosity and make them doubt themselves and their capability.

That’s the last thing a teacher should do!

To help out the students who are lagging behind, you should go for the direct intervention method.

This method as simple as the name of the method – you will tell the answer directly rather than making finding the answer all by themselves.

If you help them a few times by giving out the answer directly, they might catch up with you shortly and find out the pattern eventually.

Games Are Always Helpful!

As a teacher, you already know that games are the perfect tool to teach anything to the children. To make the lessons more joyous, you should introduce some games too.

However, you should choose the games that would help the children develop phonemic awareness.

There is one game that comes to my mind, particularly now – “The Happy Face, Sad Face” game. The rule is quite simple, you will speak out two words. If they rhyme, you will ask your student to make a happy face. If not, the response would be a sad face.

This game works like magic for teaching the students.  

There is another version of the same game that is also interesting. Here, the teacher would show three pictures of different objects. The students will pick the pictures with object names that rhyme together.

There are a lot of other games that you can introduce to your class. I would discuss them later in this article.

6 Mind Blowing Phonemic Awareness Development Methods Developed by Scholars

Over the years, many scholars and experts have come up with simple methods that can help children with phonemic awareness.

I have already shared a few techniques by linguistic experts. But the methods that I would discuss right now are mostly from the scholarly articles. So, you can call these methods effective and dependable.

Both the teachers and the parents can follow these methods to educate children.

Take your time the understand the methods and think how you can implement these methods in the strategies that you have been following already.

It’s NOT mandatory to use all of the methods but use the ones that you can match with your strategies.

Method 1: Recognizing the Isolated Sounds

The first thing that you would teach the children is that most of the words are made up of multiple sounds. So, each word is just a collection of sounds.

This is pretty basic, right?

So, teach this fundamental fact first to the children. Lewkowicz, the author of the scholarly article, emphasizes this information very much in his article.

According to him, “Children should be familiarized with speech sounds in isolation before they attempt to detect sounds within words.”

The next idea is to help the children connecting an object, an activity, or an animal to a particular sound. So, whenever they hear a sound, they can imagine the object associated with that sound.

For example, you can make a connection between the sound /s/ with the hissing sound of a snake-like Ssssss.

Once, you help the children connecting the sound to anything, you are actually creating a sound personality. In this case, snake’s hiss is the sound personality of the sound /s/.

Similarly, a crowing rooster goes with /r/, a buzzing bee goes with /z/, or silence goes with /sh/.

As a teacher, your job will be to create individual sound identities for all the 44 sounds in the phonemic alphabet. However, the sound identity can be different for each student.

You should let the students choose his or her preferred sound identities.

After the students have a complete grasp over the sounds, you should teach them to identify and individual sounds that make a word.

Now, that’s a nifty method, isn’t it?

Method 2: Counting

To find out the actual pronunciation of a particular word, you will have to identify the individual phonemes the word has. However, finding out the individual phonemes is not that much of an easy job.

The process would be even harder for a young child.

So, what’s the solution here?

Well, the trick is to identify the words and the syllables first as they are more prominent and easily identifiable. So, in that way, the first step of the phoneme synthesis is to count and individualize the letters in a word.

However, the letter counting process should be auditory dependent, that means the child will not see the actual spelling, and he or she will try to guess the spelling just by hearing the sound of the word.

After hearing the pronunciation of the word, he or she would break the sound into syllables based on guessing. Only after that, the child can say how many phonemes a particular word might have.

Let me clear it with an example.

Let’s say the word that the child would try to analyze is window. In the first step, someone will speak out the word. Secondly, the child will try to break the word into two syllables win and dow. Finally, he or she would try to find the count the phonemic letters (/ˈwɪn/ and /dəʊ/) and actual pronunciation of window.

That’s how a child can count and identify the phonemes in a word.

Method 3: Sound Synthesis

Sound synthesis can be considered as one of the fundamental reading skills that a person has to have to read properly.

It is often considered as one of the easiest steps, too when it comes to mastering phonemic awareness. The basic idea behind this trick is to blend two or more sounds together to come up with the actual sound of the word.

How can a teacher help a student with it?

Let’s say the word to be pronounced is night. So, the teacher would say the word starts with the /n/ sound and finishes with the /ʌɪt/ (ight) sound.

The task of the student would be to blend the sounds together and come up with the complete sound /nʌɪt/ (night).

So, you can summarize the task as following –

• Find the initial sound
• Identify the final sound
• Blend the two sounds together

But there is more to the task actually. As you can see, the task is rather boring and often complex. Hallie Kay Yopp, the developer of this method, came up with another idea to make the activity fun for the kids.

She suggested that the activity can be performed with jingles and even with puppet shows! These two methods certainly light up the mood in the classrooms.

Yopp even suggested using the famous children song, “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.”

However, in this case, the lyrics are a bit different as the student are trying to find out the sound of a word. So, the changed lyrics is something like this –

If you think you know this word, shout it out!

If you think you know this word, shout it out!

Then tell me what you’ve heard,

If you think you know this word, shout it out!

Method 4: The Matching or Sound to Word Matching

This method is also a simple yet effective one for the beginners and the kids. Like a lot of other methods, it tries to help a person with sound segmentation.

The fundamental idea of this method is to match the correct sound to the word as the name suggests.

For example, if a teacher is trying to teach the sound of the dog, he or she would show a picture of a dog.

Then, she would ask a couple of questions, like –

“Is this a Cccc-og, a Dddd-og, or a Llll-og?”

Then, the students would reply with the correct answer.

The teacher can even try mixing things up. For example, the teacher would simply ask the students, ”Is there a /d/ in dog?” or “Which of the sound /c/, /d/, or /l/ matches with dog?” 

As I have said, the key idea is to match a sound with a word – that’s it!

Yopp is also the inventor of this method, and she insisted using tunes of popular children’s song like – Old McDonald had a farm in this case. 

You must say the idea of using popular tunes will certainly have a positive impact on the children.

Method 5: Sound Identification and Positioning

This method suggests that a word or the sound of a word should have three parts – initial, medial, and final.

A student will hear a word, divide the sounds into the thee parts, and then position the parts into the three slots.

You could even tell your students to think of the sound positions to be parts of a train. Like this –

1. Initial part – The engine
2. Medial part – The passenger cars
3. Final part – The carriage

Again, let me clarify with an example.

Consider the word pig. The first or the initial sound is /p/, the medial part is /ɪ/, and the final part is /g/. When you combine all the three parts together, you will get /pɪg/.

However, there can be different kinds of combinations other than this formation –

• Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) formation
• Consonant-Vowel (CV) formation
• Vowel-Consonant (VC) formation

But no matter the formation is, the basic idea is simple – identifying the sounds, assigning correct sound positions, and combining the sounds to construct the overall sound.

Method 6: Sound Segmentation

The last method, sound segmentation, is often considered as toughest of all the simple methods for the children. This method is almost like the sound identification and sound positioning.

However, there is a slight difference. The methodology is like this –

1. Listen to the sound of the word,
2. Isolate the phonemes in the word
3. Pronounce the separate phonemes according to the order
4. Combine or blend individual phonemes together to come up with the sound of the word.

Some linguistic experts have said this method to be an advanced method and should to taught to the students who have already mastered the basic methods. But this strategy works great for students practicing spelling bee words. 

Observations

Phonetic spelling looks tricky when you first look at it.

Don’t get discouraged!

There is a lot to absorb, and take in, but the end result is well worth it. Your child will have a foundation to build vocabulary on that will open the doors to learning.

Spell like a champ!

Games That Can Help You or Your Child with Phonemes

Who doesn’t like to play games?

All the better when that game encourages learning and mastery of a concept.

A few years back, I was talking to a friend that dealt with computer programming and development.  We were talking about the fact that younger people seem to learn how to use new devices faster than older people.

After all, you would think with more world experience and maturity, an older person would grasp concepts faster.

His answer? 

Games.

He argued that a younger person grasps how to use newer technologies simply because they are learning it in a fun and entertaining way. Older people are using technology for more boring things.

In other words, there is no excitement in learning how to master the technology.

The theory can be applied to almost any learning setting.

It is why educational games are so popular. It is why a person can learn the rules to baseball and football, but cringe at learning the motor vehicle rules.

So the best way to learn phonetics and sight words is to play games. SpellQuiz has brought a brand new idea of bringing Spelling Bee games online with SBO.  

Here is a list of some games that I have found online that will be helpful –

Scoop & Spell 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama 

It’s a hands-on word building and spelling activity. I would suggest possibly modifying it to where the student has to give the phonetic spelling or sound of the letter.

Sidewalk Chalk Spelling Hop 

Website/ Developer: Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

Hopscotch, except with letters. All you need is sidewalk chalk !and you are off to the races!

Stamp Your Words 

Website/ Developer: Lessons Learnt Journal

The most important skill in early reading is the ability to read single words completely, accurately, and fluently. Phonics helps kids read single words out of context by giving them the tools to sound words out, which helps them read and comprehend text. Phonics is not the only skill they need to master in order to read, but it is one of the skills.

This game is easy to learn but has as many options as there are words.

Go on a Word Treasure Hunt 

Website/ Developer: Hands On: As We Grow

A treasure hunt to search for the letters of a few of his current list of sight words. 

Make a Spelling Word Search Puzzle 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Just recently, I made a blank spelling word search puzzles for my son. Why was it blank? Because HE made the puzzles. My favorite thing about these spelling word search puzzles is that he (not I) was doing all the work. And when kids do the work in fun ways, THEY benefit from all the learning.

Use a Spelling Dictionary 

Website/ Developer: The Measured Mom

Have you ever thought that the best way to teach a child phonetic spelling and reading is to let them create their own dictionary?

Dot Sticker Spelling 

Website/ Developer: School Time Snippets

Imagine scrabble, except with colored dots!

Post-a-Word 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

I never thought about using post-it notes as a sort of scavenger hunt for words! You could use phonetic spelling words and do the same!

Make a Giant Crossword Puzzle 

Website/ Developer: A Mom with a Lesson Plan

I am really starting to see the uses of sidewalk chalk! Make the phonetic spelling as larger as life with this game!

Phonics Jumping Game 

Website/ Developer: Learners in Bloom

Hopscotch with a twist! Jump on the proper phonetic square to sound out the word!

Play Word Rocket 

Website/ Developer: Playdough to Plato

Countdown to success in phonetics and spelling!

Spell with Beads 

Website/ Developer: Frugal Fun 4 Boys

Kids just love doing things with their hands. They also like creating things. Why not make beaded words?

Spell with LEGO Letters 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

I grew up with tubs of Legos. I think most families have a bucket or two around. So why not try this original take on building words, learning sight words, or phonetic spelling?

Spell the Most Words Game 

Website/ Developer: No Time for Flashcards

Have a Connect Four game laying around somewhere? Turn it into a connect phonetic spelling words game!

Spinning Straw Spellers 

Website/ Developer: Still Playing School

It’s never too early to teach phonetics or motor skills!

Build Words with Rocks 

Website/ Developer: Sugar Ants

Kids love rocks. Why not combine phonetic spelling and a rock garden!

Glitter Spelling 

Website/ Developer: Here Come the Girls

Glitter is here to stay! I still have glitter on the floor at my parents’ home from my childhood. So why not find a sparling way to teach phonetic words!

Play Word Bump! 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

This is a game that couple math, phonetics, and sight words. may the odds be forever in your favor!

Roll a Sight Word 

Website/ Developer: I Can Teach My Child

This one is more geared for sight words, but can be adapted to phonetic spelling. The child rolls a dice, and whatever it lands on, they have to spell a word with that many letters. You could do it with phonetic spellings as well!

Making Words 

Website/ Developer: Buggy and Buddy

When I was a kid, we would play a game where we would pull a word from the dictionary and then have so many seconds to write as many words as we could from the letters of that word.  I could see this one adapted to a phonetic spelling game easily! 

Paint your Words 

Website/ Developer: Childhood 101

Paint and words! Why not let your child paint the word /k/-/a/-/t/?

Oversized Letter Cards for Spelling 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Go big or go home! What better way to capture the interest of your child than by giving them big words to form big skills?

Seek and Find Spelling Game 

Website/ Developer: What Do We Do All Day?

Digging for buried letters is much like digging for buried treasure! 

Rainbow Write Your Words 

Website/ Developer: Nurture Store

What better pot of gold at the end of a rainbow than the gift of phonetic mastery?

Words 3 Ways 

Website/ Developer: Teach Mama

Trace. Copy. Recall. It works on learning sight words; it can surely help on phonetic spelling.

Use Crayon Resist 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Crayons, watercolors, and words! What better way to learn!

Spell with Pipe Cleaners 

Website/ Developer: Make and Takes

What more fun than making the letters and sounding them out? Making the letters with pipe cleaners, that’s what!

Spell with Your Fingers 

Website/ Developer: Home School Innovation

Trace out the word, now tell me how it is spelled phonetically.

Use Word Sorts 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

One of the biggest problems to going from phonetic spelling to regular spelling is all the silent letters that appear. Well, this game can help with phonetical spelling and the silent problem.

Spell with Cereal 

Website/ Developer: A Mom with a Lesson Plan

Does your kid have a favorite cereal? Then why not let the Honey Nut Cheerios be a spelling tool and a snack?

Finger Tap Spelling 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

I think that this game is uniquely perfect for phonetical spelling. The child taps the sounds and syllables out, then spells the word.

Car Track Delivery Spelling Game 

Website/ Developer: Stay at Home Educator

Boys like cars. And more than cars, they love driving their cars through an imaginary city. Why not let them pick up and deliver the right letters that sound out a word?

Editable Spring Word Games

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Try this fun game that will allow you to edit the board to play five different word games. It would introduce diversity and creativity to your teaching methods. 

Visual Spelling Practice 

Website/ Developer: Home Literacy Blueprint

There are so many children that are visual learners, and sometimes trying to sound it out is a struggle. These are simple games for them.

Roll & Cover Spelling Words 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Let the child take control of which words they concentrate on by letting them roll dice and spell words that have that many words. Ad a twist and make them spell it phonetically

Make a Spelling Garage 

Website/ Developer: 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Hot-wheels and words, what could be a better way to learn?

Roll and Cover

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Roll and Cover is no prep fraction game that means you can teach mathematical fundamental idea of fraction and dividation using this fun board game. If your students need a bit more fun in the math class, you should try this one out. 

Letter Lacing 

Website/ Developer: Mama Miss

Beads and pipe cleaners, words and phonetics…a fun time for all!

Roll & Write Words 

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

Roll the dice and spell the word. This one is very similar to the Roll and Spell that I have mentioned earlier.

Spelling Hangman 

Website/ Developer: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Of course, the Hangman is one of the most popular spelling games that I can think about. This is not a digital game rather a physical one that comes with a dry erasing board and a marker. This is the type of games that will let you and your kids jump straight to the fun!

Use a Board Game 

Website/ Developer: Teach Beside Me

This is like a lot of other board games, but the main purpose is to learn to spell. You will need the board, a spelling list, a few game markers, and a dice. There are different challenges in each tile, the participant will have to complete the task assigned in the tiles. One can move to a particular tile by rolling the dice.

Spell with a Word Family Dictionary 

Website/ Developer: Guest post on The Measured Mom

Do you remember the word families that I have mentioned in the previous section? You can practice and learn about the word families with is game. You should definitely try out this one as it focuses on the fundamental phoneme development practices.

Play a Word Stretching Game 

Website/ Developer: Simple Play Ideas

You are probably aware of the stretching games where you will have to put a body part in a specific place. Well, in this game you will have to do the same thing, but you will have to do them based on the word games.

Spelling Word Search Puzzles

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

This another puzzle-based word game where you will have to find a particular word based on different clues.

Invented Spelling 

Website/ Developer: 1+1+1=1

This is a smart brain developmental game where a child will try to invent new words based on acronyms. For example, one can make the word “IFAM” from the clue, “I found a Mom!”

The game seems quite intriguing as it challenges a child to become more creative with the thinking style.

Spelling Puzzles 

Website/ Developer: No Time for Flash Cards

This is yet another puzzle game that the kids always love to play. The great thing about this puzzle is that kids can learn a lot just by taking part in it.

Missing Letter Spelling Game 

Website/ Developer: Imagination Soup

The purpose of this game is to fill in the blanks and figure out the complete word. Well, you should know the target of the game as the name of the game already gives away the answer.

Sidewalk Chalk Sight Words Game

Website/ Developer: This Reading Mama

The sight words are a great trick for the kids and the new learners to get the necessary skills to read and speak the English language. If you are interested in teaching sight words to your kids, you should obviously let your kids play this wonderful game. 

Spelling Battleship 

Website/ Developer: Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

There is one thing for sure kids love ships, and when it comes to the battleships, they become super hyped. So, this game is a wonderful combination of spelling and battleships. Does it sound interesting? Why don’t you take a look in the game and see if your kids love it too?

Beginner Sight Words Letter Match

Website/ Developer: The Tool Box

The last game in my list today is another game based on the sight words. This game does not only focus on sight words but also helps the kids enjoy the matching games. The matching and the learning sight words will develop the cognitive function of the kids by a great margin.

The Written Symbols: The Advanced Lessons on Phonemes

Till now, I have focused on talking about the basic things that you can incorporate to your teaching methods for teaching the young kids about the phonemes and spellings.

But what should you do when the kids have mastered the basic lessons and now ready for the advanced activities?

Well, that’s why I have decided to talk about the advanced lessons.

So, you would be trying to teach the written script of the phonological spelling and the phonemic alphabet.

After a student master learning the written symbols associated with phonemic awareness, your job will be done!

So, let’s start.

The first thing that you should do is to let them know that there is another kind of alphabet in English and we barely use it. This alphabet helps a reader to identify the correct sound of the words.

You might have seen them already. These are the weird little symbol in the dictionaries. Yes, they are extremely helpful as they tell you about the correct sound of a particular word.

If you want your students never to mispronounce a single word in their lives, you should teach them about these symbols.

So, how can you start teaching them?

As you have given them the list of all phonemic symbols, ask them to keep this list with them always, at least during the phonemic lessons.

Let’s just call this list the cheat sheet for perfect pronunciation!

For a clear idea, I would break down the teaching strategies in different sections. Such as –

• Vowels
• Diphthongs
• Digraphs
• Consonant blends and
• Syllables

Vowels

What is the true definition of the vowels?

Well, I am sure you have memorized this definition – “Vowels are the letters in the alphabet that are not consonants!”

Or, some even say that “A, E, I, O, and U are vowels!”

Yes, they are not wrong definitions, but they are not exactly accurate as they can’t give a proper characteristic to the letters.

So, what is the correct definition?

Vowels or vowel sounds are the sounds that we can produce without making the parts of our mouths touching together. You can just produce the sound keeping your mouth completely open.

How many vowels are there?

I know a lot of you are thinking the question to be too easy as there are only 5 vowels, right?

Wrong!

Yes, there are 5 letters to symbolize the vowels in the typical alphabet, but there are a total of 15 pure vowel sounds in English.

But why is that?

Well, some vowel sounds are short (pet) while some of them are long (feet). So, each of the vowel letters has two different vowel sounds based on the duration of the sound.

Here is the simple classification –

1. Long vowels – 5
2. Short vowels – 5
3. Complex or other vowels – 5

The following chart will help you with the vowel sounds –

Long and Short Vowel Sounds
Sl. No.	Vowel-Letters	Vowel Sound Patterns	Vowel Symbols	Examples
1	a	Short	/æ/	cat
2		Long	/eɪ/	cake
3	e	Short	/ɛ/	bed
4		Long	/i/	keep
5	i	Short	/ɪ/	sit
6		Long	/yu/	bike
7	o	Short	/ɑ/	top
8		Long	/oʊ/	home
9	u	Short	/ʌ/	sun
10		Long	/yu/	cute

So, those were the first ten sounds. There are five more, and sometimes they are called complex vowel sounds as they are combinations of two vowel sounds.

Check out the list –

Complex Vowel Sounds
Sl. No.	Sound Names	Sound Symbols	Examples
1	Other u	/ʊ/	Put
2	Oo sound	/u/	Soon
3	Aw sound	/ɔ/	Dog
4	Oi sound	/ɔɪ/	Join
5	Ow sound	/aʊ/	Down

So, there are a total of 15 vowel sounds in the English language, but some linguistic specialists say that there are a12 vowel sounds.

Well, there are different classification systems available, and you can follow any one of them.

Diphthongs

Just clear thing out, the diphthongs are also vowels. Actually, the vowel sounds can be classified into two groups –

• Monophthongs – /ɛ/, /i/, /ɪ/, etc.
• Diphthongs – /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /oʊ/, etc.

Can you find out any difference between the monophthongs and diphthongs just by looking at the examples mentioned above?

Well, let me make things easy for you.

The diphthongs have two vowels combining together to make a new vowel sound. You can call them compound vowel sounds too.

The exact definition of the diphthongs would be something like this – when two vowels combine together to make one phoneme in a single syllable, they create a diphthong or a gliding vowel.

Here, look at the following table on the examples of some diphthongs, and you will start to notice them more clearly.

Diphthong Sounds
Sl. No.	Sound Names	Sound Symbols	Examples
1	Ow sound	/aʊ/	Down
2	Oi sound	/ɔɪ/	Join
3	Ou sound or long o	/oʊ/	Home

 

Digraphs

Digraphs are almost like diphthongs. But there is a fundamental difference between them. Diphthongs are always vowel sounds, but the digraphs can be both vowels and consonants.

So, the definition of the digraphs is – when two letters combine together to make a single phoneme, it is called a digraph.  

As per the definition, there can be two kinds of digraphs –

• Vowel digraphs and
• Consonant digraphs

Vowel digraphs are two vowel sounds combined together making a single phoneme. For example, the “ay” sound in the word away is a vowel digraph.

Then, comes the consonant digraphs.

Consonant digraphs are two consonant sounds combined together making a single phoneme. For example, the “sh” sound in the word shark is a consonant digraph.

 Here, take a look at the chart of the digraphs –

Digraph Sounds
Sl. No.	Digraph	Digraph Type	Examples
1	Ch	Consonant	Chair, Choose, Much
2	Th	Consonant	Thing, Think, Thank, Math
3	Ea	Vowel	Wheat, Seat, Beat, Neat
4	Oa	Vowel	Goat, Boat, Float, Oat

 

Consonant Blends

Consonant blend is another neat trick that you should know about. Have you ever noticed a cluster of consonants that always get placed in a particular order producing a similar type of sound?

Didn’t get my question?

Here, can you find any similarity among these words?

“fact, tact, duct, inject, act, project, etc.”

All of the words have the same -ct sound in their finishing part! This is a classic example of the consonant blend.

When two or more consonant sounds combine or blend together to make a unique sound, it is called a consonant blend.

Sometimes the consonant blend is known as a consonant cluster.

 There can be two kinds of consonant blends –

• Initial consonant blend – used in the starting of a word
• Finishing consonant blend – used in the finishing part of a word

Here, check out the following table for a clearer idea –

Consonant Blends
Sl. No.	Consonant Blends	Consonant Blend Type	Examples
1	Bl-	Initial	Blue, bloom, black, bless
2	Cl-	Initial	Clear, clean, class, clue, clam
3	-ct	Finishing	Act, fact, duct, erect, dissect
4	-nd	Finishing	And, rand, brand, hand, sand, land

 

All About Syllables: The Most Important Lesson on Phonemes

If you have read the whole article thoroughly till now, you would have noticed that I have mentioned about the syllable multiple times.

The lessons or the development of phonemic awareness would be incomplete without the knowledge of syllables.

So, what are the syllables?

Syllables are the parts of the complete sound of a word. Basically, two or more syllable join together to make a word. But, any cluster of letters or sounds cannot be called a syllable unless it has a vowel in it.

For example, if you break the word paper into sound groups, you will get pa–per. Both pa and per are syllables.

So, there are two syllables in the word paper, and they are pa and per.

As you can see, all the syllables must have at least one vowel.

One can classify the syllables in many ways. The first type of classification divides the syllables into two groups –

1. Open syllables
2. Closed syllables

If a syllable ends with a vowel, it is called an open syllable. If the syllable ends with a consonant, it would be a closed syllable.

That is the basic difference between the two groups. Check out the following table to understand them better –

Open and Closed Syllables
Sl. No.	Sample word	Syllable breakdown	Type of syllable
1	Apron	Ap-ron	Open
2	Pilot	Pi-lot	Open
3	Seven	Sev-en	Closed
4	Doctor	Doc-tor	Closed

How Many Syllables Are There?

There can be multiple numbers of syllables in a word.

So, the language specialists have classified the words based on the number of syllables.

Basically, the words can be divided into four categories depending on the number of syllables. They are as follows –

1. Mono-syllabic words – Have only one syllable
2. Di-syllabic words – Have two syllables
3. Tri-syllabic words – Have three syllables
4. Poly-syllabic words – Have more than three syllables

As I have giving charts for you to grasp the concepts, I will do it to explain this concept too!

Check it out!

Classification of Words Based on the Number of Syllables
Sl. No.	Sample word	Syllable breakdown	Number of Syllables	Type of word
1	Cat	Cat	1	Monosyllabic
2	Pilot	Pi-lot	2	Disyllabic
3	Magical	Ma-gi-cal	3	Trisyllabic
4	Librarian	Li-bra-ri-an	4	Polysyllabic

 

To master the phonemic awareness, you should practice the concept of syllables as it would help you the most to produce the correct pronunciation every time.

The Final Lesson: Understanding the IPA Chart for Better Phonemic Awareness

 Now comes the fun part and the last thing that I would discuss in this guide – the IPA chart.

Do you remember, I have told you that there are 44 sounds in the English language? The IPA chart has all the sounds in it with respective symbols connected to all the sounds.

And what, you ask, is the IPA chart?

That’s a great question. First, let’s find out what IPA means.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system with 44 symbols connected to respective sounds. The alphabet system is based on Latin, and it was developed and standardized in the late 19^th century.

The IPA chart is merely the symbols that stand for each sound.

Now, if you were to google IPA Chart, your mind will explode. 

Literally.

You will see breakdowns of what each squiggly is called, what happens when you put this said squiggly with that said squiggly. What you get with the different tongue positions, whether two sounds can be used together. 

Secrets of the universe, and what happens if you cross the streams. (A little Ghostbusters humor there.)

But we don’t have time to learn that, and we would scar a child for life if we introduced the child to that.

So, we will be concentrating on what the symbols sound like.  You can always go back and torture yourself later.

IPA Chart (Consonants)
Phoneme Serial No.	Phonemic Symbol	Graphemes or correspondent letters	Examples
1	/b/	b, bb	Bag, chubby
2	/d/	d, dd, ed	Lad, daddy, drilled
3	/f/	f, ff, ph, gh, lf, ft	Fill, puff, graph, enough, calf, soften
4	/g/	g, gg, gh, gu, gue	Guy, begging, ghoul, guest, dialogue
5	/h/	h, wh	Hole, whom
6	/dʒ/	j, ge, g, dge, di, gg	Joy, sage, giraffe, badge, soldier, exaggerate
7	/k/	k, c, ch, cc, lk, qu, q, ck, x	Kill, cart, chemistry, accent, folklore, bouquet, quiet, sack, tax
8	/l/	l, ll	Lie, small
9	/m/	m, mm, mb, mn, lm	Mine, summer, tomb, column, calm
10	/n/	n, nn,kn, gn, pn	Sun, sunny, know, gnat, pneumonia
11	/p/	p, pp	Sap, sipping
12	/r/	r, rr, wr, rh	Roar, parrot, wreck, rhyme
13	/s/	s, ss, c, sc, ps, st, ce, se	Soil, fuss, circle, science, psych, listen, race, force
14	/t/	t, tt, th, ed	Tin, better, Thomas, flipped
15	/v/	v, f, ph, ve	Vent, of, Stephen, live
16	/w/	w, wh, u, o	Wet, why, quick, noir
17	/z/	z, zz, s, ss, x, ze, se	zed, buzz, his, scissors, xylophone, craze
18	/ʒ/	s, si, z	treasure, division, azure
19	/tʃ/	ch, tch, tu, ti, te	chip, watch, future, action, righteous
20	/ʃ/	sh, ce, s, ci, si, ch, sci, ti	sham, ocean, sure, special, pension, machine, conscience, station
21	/θ/	th	thongs
22	/ð/	th	leather
23	/ŋ/	ng, n, ngue	ring, pink, tongue
24	/j/	y, i, j	you, onion, hallelujah

 

IPA Chart (Vowels)
Phoneme Serial No.	Phonemic Symbol	Graphemes or correspondent letters	Examples
1	/æ/	a, ai, au	cat, plaid, laugh
2	/eɪ/	a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, er, et, ei, au, a_e, ea, ey	end, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard, heifer, aesthetic
3	/e/	e, ea, u, ie, ai, a, eo, ei, ae	end, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard, heifer, aesthetic
4	/i:/	e, ee, ea, y, ey, oe, ie, i, ei, eo, ay	be, bee, meat, lady, key, phoenix, grief, ski, deceive, people, quay
5	/ɪ/	i, e, o, u, ui, y, ie	it, england, women, busy, guild, gym, sieve
6	/aɪ/	i, y, igh, ie, uy, ye, ai, is, eigh, i_e	spider, sky, night, pie, guy, stye, aisle, island, height, kite
7	/ɒ/	a, ho, au, aw, ough	swan, honest, maul, slaw, fought
8	/oʊ/	o, oa, o_e, oe, ow, ough, eau, oo, ew	open, moat, bone, toe, sow, dough, beau, brooch, sew
9	/ʊ/	o, oo, u,ou	wolf, look, bush, would
10	/ʌ/	u, o, oo, ou	lug, monkey, blood, double
11	/u:/	o, oo, ew, ue, u_e, oe, ough, ui, oew, ou	who, loon, dew, blue, flute, shoe, through, fruit, manoeuvre, group
12	/ɔɪ/	oi, oy, uoy	join, boy, buoy
13	/aʊ/	ow, ou, ough	now, shout, bough
14	/ə/	a, er, i, ar, our, ur	about, ladder, pencil, dollar, honour, augur
15	/eəʳ/	air, are, ear, ere, eir, ayer	chair, dare, pear, where, their, prayer
16	/ɑ:/	a	arm
17	/ɜ:ʳ/	ir, er, ur, ear, or, our, yr	bird, term, burn, pearl, word, journey, myrtle
18	/ɔ:/	aw, a, or, oor, ore, oar, our, augh, ar, ough, au	paw, ball, fork, poor, fore, board, four, taught, war, bought, sauce
19	/ɪəʳ/	ear, eer, ere, ier	ear, steer, here, tier
20	/ʊəʳ/	ure, our	cure, tourist

Are There More Phonemes?

So, that is the detailed chart with all the 44 phonemes and examples of the phonemes in words. As I have said, the chart was designed in the late 19^th century.

The experts have added even more phonemes in the IPA charts in later days. For example, you go to the official website of IPA, you will see that there are a lot more phonemes than 44.

Currently, there are a total of 107 phonemic letters, 52 diacritics, and 4 prosodics. If you want really learn the advanced materials, you can check out the website.

Final Words

So, this was my guide on phonemic awareness. Please let me know your thoughts and if you have any question in your mind, just post it down in the comment section. I will get back to you and try my best to answer your questions.

If you can master the phonemic awareness, you will be able to pronounce every single word in the English language flawlessly. Believe it or not, it would be an exceptional skill to master. So, what are you waiting for? Start your practice sessions right away.

Don’t forget to check out the vocabulary quiz online in SpellQuiz. You can develop your phonemic awareness a lot faster with the spelling practice materials that we have here.  

Things are never too easy when you are trying to learn a new language. English can be particularly tough as you would have to get yourself familiarized with tons of grammatical rules. Rather than discouraging you, I will talk about a special trick that would help you understand English in a smart way – Sight Words.

Every language is made up of thousands of words. Even for a native speaker, it is almost impossible to know all the words. The same can be said about English too.

In a general sense, a native speaker has a vocabulary of about 25,000 words. What does it mean? Should a new user cram up the whole dictionary to use or understand English?

Well, the simple answer would be – NO!

The beauty of the English language is that one can use English in daily life to express thoughts and feelings even with a small vocabulary.

Don’t believe me?

Let me share you an interesting fact about English – about 50% of all the reading text is made up of only 100 words. Think about it, you might see some common words like – “The,” “This,” “I,” “You,” far too often.

Technically, the linguistic experts have given a name for these frequently seen words – sight words. So, if one can master these words, understand the meaning, and learn how to utilize these words in daily life English, communicating might be easier than you can imagine.

Try this vocabulary tester to understand your current skill level!

This article is particularly written for teachers who want to teach their students English quickly and methodologically. If you coach someone trying to learn English as a second language, this lesson might come in handy.

Now, you can find all the sight words in one place for better sight words exercises. You can check the grade-by-grade sight words lists and can download them for your offline practices too!

And, if you want to practice the sight words in SpellQuiz style, don’t forget check out the fry words first 100!

 

How Sight Words Help with Learning a New Language?

Let’s start with the basic step of learning a new language. Let’s think of a different language to make things easier.

Suppose you are planning to learn Japanese and you are a native English user. You will not start your lesson by going through grammar or any written rules.

The first step is to listen to the language and trying to identify some words that occur more frequently than others. The next step would be learning the meaning of those words.

If you memorize these spelling vocabulary words, you will start noticing these words and guess the context of a scenario.

No matter which language you are trying to learn – this is the most effective and common step that can help you.

The Popular Sight Words Lists That You Can Teach

It was just a matter of time for the linguistic experts of the English language to identify the pattern in English. We must give credit to Dr. Edward Dolch for this discovery.

Dr. Dolch, in the 1930s, developed a list of words that he thought of teaching the pre-kindergarten students. He studied the available books that the children used to study to come up with the list of 220 words.

Thus, came the Dolch Sight Words List!

However, we must thank another the expert, Dr. Edward Fry. Dr. Fry did even more extensive research and created an extended version of Dr. Dolch’s List. His discoveries came to light in the 1950s.

While the Dolch Sight word list consists only 220 words, the Fry Sight word list has 1,000 words. Dr. Fry studied the words that the students from grade-1 to grade-10 learn during their academic period.

As the Fry Sight Words list is more extensive, the list covers about 90% of all the words a user can see in English magazines, books, or use in daily life.

So, if a new user masters the Fry Sight Words, he or she can use English in daily life quite easily.

These two are the older lists and quite popular among the teachers. You can try the newer lists too.

The most popular of the newer lists is called the Top 150 Written Words. This is list consists of the most common written words in modern days. Dr. Sally E. Shaywitz, professor of Learning Development from reputed Yale University advocates for this list strongly.

The Dolch List

The Dolch list is great for teaching children and the adults who are just starting to learn English. Dr. Dolch designed the list in the 1930s.

The list consists of two types of words –

• 220 service words
• 95 high-frequency nouns or Dolch Nouns

So, in total, there are 315 Dolch words or Dolch Sight Words.

If a learner can have a complete grasp over these words, he or she can understand all the children’s books. The list comprises of 80% words one can find in the children’s books and 50% of the written words.

Here, I will give the complete Dolch Words list. You can also download the PDF files so that you can print them out and incorporate them into your teaching sessions.

• Pre-KG Dolch Sight Words
• Kindergarten Dolch Sight Words
• First Grade Dolch Sight Words
• Second Grade Dolch Sight Words
• Third Grade Dolch Sight Words
• Noun Sight Dolch Words

The Fry Sight Words List

You can call the Fry Sight Words list an extension of Dr. Dolch’s list. While the Dolch Sight Words list is designed for the primary learners, the Fry Sight Words list is the advanced version for the secondary learners.

This list is suitable for students from grade three to grade ten. So, naturally, the list contains more wore words compared to the Dolch list. 

There are 1,000 Fry words in this list, and the 1000 sight words cover about 90% words found in the newspapers, books, magazines. ESL learners can get a great benefit from this list. If memorising all 1,000 words seem too hard, you can try memorizing 500 sight words. Eventually, your vocabulary will be on the same level as an adult vocabulary. 

I have divided the list into batches of 100 words so that learners don’t get overwhelmed by the list.

Just like the Dolch list, we have prepared PDF versions of this list too. Don’t forget to download them, it would help you a lot.

• 1st 100 Fry Sight Words
• 2nd 100 Fry Sight Words
• 3rd 100 Fry Sight Words
• 4th 100 Fry Sight Words
• 5th 100 Fry Sight Words
• 6th 100 Fry Sight Words
• 7th 100 Fry Sight Words
• 8th 100 Fry Sight Words
• 9th 100 Fry Sight Words
• 10th 100 Fry Sight Words

The Top 150 Written Sight Words

As I have said before, the top 150 written sight words are modern and designed by linguistic experts of the current generation. The list would help the new learners a lot as they would these words too often in the books.

Just like the other two lists, you can download them in PDF too.

So, check out the final list.

• First 50 Words of Top 150 Sight Words
• Second 50 Words of Top 150 Sight Words
• Third 50 Words of Top 150 Sight Words

7 Amazing Teaching Strategies for Sight Words

1. Identifying the Learning Pace of the Student

As a teacher, you should analyze the capability of your students first. If you are teaching kindergarten student, you should never push him or her to learn all the sight words. It might be too much for a child of that age.

Actually, the load should always be dependent on the learning pace of the students. Each person has a different learning pace, and you should strategize according to it.

2. The Batch Strategy

A smart plan would be dividing the sight words into smaller batches. Create small lists of 5-10 words that you would teach the learner every day.

Rather than pushing to memorize the words, make them understand the words.

You should teach –

• The meaning of the word
• Probable contexts where the word can be used
• Give some examples of scenarios where the word suits perfectly to express thoughts

3. Keep the Lessons Short

Don’t beat the dead horse! When you are teaching the sight words, you have to keep in mind that every word is a new word for the learner.

So, the lessons shouldn’t be longer than 15 minutes and discuss only 5 words during each session.

If you elongate the sessions, you might frustrate your students and make them scared of the learning process. This the worst thing you can do if you are trying to teach them new things.

Positive energies and emotions make the learning process more effective. 

4. Keep Revising

If you keep teaching only new words, the learning sessions will not be fruitful. Your students will definitely forget the previously learned words.

So, after you teach them new words, try revisiting the older words that you have already taught them.

Pro tip! Keep the old-words-revising-sessions and the new-words-learning-sessions separate.

Never let them feel as if they were giving a test during the revise sessions. It would impose a great negative impact on the learning process.

5. Incorporate Flashcards

When you are teaching new words, adopting the flashcard method is the best thing you can do.

But where can you get the flashcards? Making Flashcards from scratch is surely a hectic task.

Don’t worry, SpellQuiz is here to help. We have designed printable flashcards based on the academic levels just for you.

Moreover, try these spelling tests to master English spelling!

6. The Three-Layer Method

This strategy would require flash cards. Each flashcard will have one word in it. Once the learner sees a new word from a flashcard, you would talk about the word so that he or she can understand the word better.

After that, you will follow the three-layer method. It is something like this –

• 1^st Layer – See and Say: The learner will see the new word and say it out loud. It would help him or her to learn the proper pronunciation. Of course, you would teach them the correct pronunciation.
• 2^nd Layer – Spell and Say: In this phase, the learner would spell the word and finally speak out the word again.
• 3^rd Layer – Write and Say: Finally, in this phase, he or she would write the word down and say it once again.

7. Don’t Rush, Ever!

The words you would teach are quite common, and you might be using them for years. But you should keep in mind that it is a challenging task for the learner.

So, you should never rush, spend adequate time teaching each word. If you rush things, the learner will forget the word in no time.

Your target is to create a strong base.

Now you can take part in online Spelling Bee too! Check out the SBO section on Spellquiz today! It’s like a virtual spelling competition. 

So, let’s start with a guessing game – you run a NEW educational website and planning rank faster on search engines? Guest posts could be an excellent option for you since you are thriving to get traffic on your site.

If you are a follower of our website, you might have the idea of how we are planning to serve the netizens. We want to create a place where students, parents, and even teachers can come a learn more about learning the English language. There is a special place in our hearts who trying to learn English as a Second Language (ESL learners) and the eager participants of Spelling Bee. 

Now you can take part in online Spelling Bee too! Check out the SBO section on Spellquiz today! it combines the effectiveness of a spelling bee test with the excitement of playing games. 

We cordially welcome any great guest blogger who shares the same ideology of us. So, today, we thought of sharing some features that we would love to see on the guest posts.

Don’t worry; it’s not like any BIG BOOK of rules!

However, following some guidelines would help both of growing stronger.

Are you ready?

Let’s Be Transparent!

We would love to know who we are working with. Having guest posts from any John Doe is NOT something we are looking for.

So, the first thing we are looking for is a clear identity.

The whole idea of guest posts is – building sustainable relationships. Honesty and transparency are two key things we are asking of you.

Before we start, you should clearly mention –

• The name of the author (preferably with a small bio)
• The website’s name that you are planning to promote

Being Relevant

Maybe you have a great website on pet niche or healthcare niche. We really appreciate your effort to serve the people with something useful, we really do!

However, SpellQuiz is an educational website, and we intend to keep things that way. So, we WILL NOT accept any blog that doesn’t have any connection to education.

Our readers have a lot of expectation from us as we always have tried to help them with topics that are closely tied to education, more specifically K-12 education.

So, what’s the gist here?

Your articles should be strictly within the K-12 education niche and should have VALUE that would serve the reader-base.

We Love Keeping Things Detailed!

Writing is a great and rare skill, and we do appreciate great writers. But you have to keep in mind that guest posts are not like small sticky notes or Tweets. We always love giving extensive details on a topic while we are creating blog materials.

So, we think that your guest posts should have a minimum length between 1,000 to 2,000 words. 

This is the optimum size, and we intend to keep things that way. We don’t mind if you are creating too big a piece as long as it is relevant and full of helpful information without fluff words. 

Even if you write an article that is good but too short (say 400 to 500 words), our editorial team will not publish it. So, you shouldn’t bother.

Quality is Everything!

If some company has the best marketing, best analysis team, even the highest brand tag, it will fail if the actual product is poor.

The same can be said about content writing. No matter how great your SEO is, no matter how many backlinks you manage to add, no matter how witty your social media manager is, you cannot win the hearts of the readers if you have substandard writing quality.

We are not asking you be a Neil Patel!

But make your contents a bit interesting for the readers, have a communicative-storytelling tone (nobody like big chunks of words), add smart headlines, and finally, don’t jibber-jabber our readers expect useful information from us.

Finally, we don’t want spelling errors, silly grammatical mistakes or any kind of plagiarism.

SpellQuiz is a website trying to help people with English language learning. So, clearly, such rookie mistakes will badly ruin our impression to the readers.

About the Backlinks

The first and foremost purpose of the whole idea of guest posts is getting valuable backlinks and better SEO. We don’t think we need to clear that up!

You can add as much as external backlinks you want to your website or some other website. You have the complete liberty.

However, you need to create 2 internal links within SpellQuiz for each external link. It’s a mandatory rule, and we will not tolerate anything otherwise.

Why are we implanting such a rule?

It’s simple – we want better, interconnected contents. Articles without links are rather isolated, and we are looking for more interconnectivity.

There is another vital reason for making such demand. We want to make sure all the blogs on our website should have relevancy and strong connection with SpellQuiz and, of course, education in overall sense. 

Make Sure to Create a Hype!

Doesn’t it feel nice when you see your contents being shared over the social platforms and people talking about it?

We are looking for reader engagement and getting social signals from all the articles on our website.

However, if your article is not getting the hype that means there is some serious issue with it. It would be your responsibility to create a buzz with your article.

That means you will have to take the responsibility of promoting your article. If your article cannot create a buzz with say 6 or 12 months, we will have to take it down!

One more thing, we are requesting you to write on topics that are trendy and fresh. In that way, you can create a good amount of publicity and that would help both of us. 

We also expect you to update your writings from time to time so that they can remain evergreen and never go obsolete to the readers. 

So, make sure to have a promotional plan for the articles you want to publish.

Use Lots of Images but Be Careful!

You should add images with the guest posts. Images make the reading experience more soothing for the readers. You can use as many images as you like, we don’t mind!

But you should have the authority to use the images you are adding to the article. More specifically, use only licensed images or “free-to-use” images.

Furthermore, you should mention the source of the images while posting. We don’t want to be on the gunpoint of the copyright regulation acts.

What Should be Your Final Step for the Guest Posts?

So, if everything seems okay for you, feel free to give us a knock. We want to help our readers with useful and insightful articles as much as possible.

When you are giving us a buzz, please share a few links of your blogs that you think are the best you can offer!

Lastly, please have some patience as we are going through a lot every day. If we cannot reply instantly, that means we are probably busy with something, and we don’t want to keep you waiting. We would get back to you as quickly as possible!

Not every single child will learn to read at the same pace. We sometimes think that our children might be feeling that a text or a passage is just too hard to read. If your child is having a real hard time to read out loud, there is a big chance that he or she might be a victim of dyslexia.

Dealing with dyslexia surely is a frustrating situation. Not just for your kid, for you also. But the case of dyslexia is not that rare. At the very beginning of learning to read, about 70-80% children displays some signs of various forms of dyslexia. With the passage of time, the symptoms start to fade away.

Still, about 5-10% kids cannot surpass the evil circle of this unhappy disorder. In some regions of the world, the number soars up to 17%!

The good news is overcoming dyslexia is possible. With great determination and a positive attitude, your kid can also be free from the vicious disorder called dyslexia.

Without wasting any more time, let us start with our ultimate guide to fight off dyslexia. Sit back, relax, and grab yourself a cup of coffee! This is going to be a long and detailed guide.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Table of Contents

What is Dyslexia?

Is Dyslexia Too Common?

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia

Other Learning Disorders Similar to Dyslexia

Your Kid is Struggling: Social and Emotional Impacts

How Could You Diagnose Dyslexia?

When Should The Kid be Evaluated for Dyslexia?

Is it Necessary to Evaluate the Kids for Dyslexia?

How to Evaluate Kids with Dyslexia?

How Can The Teachers Help?

The Classroom Doesn’t Have to Be a Prison Cell!

Be the Role Model Your Kid Needs

Higher Education: Is It a Dream or Reality?

Concluding Words

Dyslexia Definition: The Basics

Let’s start with the dyslexia definition. Dyslexia is the neurological syndrome that causes a human being to face difficulties to decode words, spelling, and phonology. He or she finds it hard not just to pronounce the word but to read it all together.

The words might seem shuffling to them, and they find it almost impossible to find words in a text. In tougher cases, a kid with dyslexia will fail to read, write, or pronounce the word. Some parents think that a dyslexic child doesn’t have the intellect to read it. That is a misconception as dyslexia has nothing to do with patient’s intelligence, they are equally smart and capable of leading a healthy normal life. The problem is only related to reading and identifying words properly.

In the beginning, it might seem impossible to diagnose a child with dyslexia. Almost every kid struggles to read fluently. But as your kids will start growing and getting into the next grades, the problem will become prominent.

The International Dyslexia Institution (IDA) defines the syndrome to be a specific learning disability that is originated from a neurological imbalance that hampers fluent word or letter recognition, poor spelling, and decoding abilities.

A patient suffers from the adequate reading experience and lack-off the average vocabulary growth. Try this vocab test tool to understand your current skill level!

Thus he or she might gradually get lower marks in school and even fail in a subject or two. Remember, you cannot blame the child as it is none of his/her faults. You need to be supportive and always keep them motivated and inspired.

Various studies also reveal that dyslexia can be caused by DNA as it runs through families. So, we think we get the gist and now know what dyslexia is.

Is Dyslexia Too Common?

Yes, having dyslexia is not that much a rare case. In the USA, about one in every five children suffer from it. If we think about the percentage of the total population, about 15-20% of total population struggle with words at the early stages of life. Among all the learning disabilities, dyslexia is the case in about 70-80% scenarios.

The sad fact is most of the dyslexic students remain undiagnosed and often treated as – dumb! It is a shame for us to label them stupid while they are suffering miserably every single day of their lives.

Earlier, scientists and experts used to think that dyslexia is more common in boys. Although, recent studies prove that the neurological syndrome has nothing to do with the patient’s gender and both the gender are equally affected.

Dyslexia Symptoms or Dyslexia Signs

Let’s kill down the misconceptions. There are a tremendous amount of misconceptions built around dyslexia. So, now we will share the exact symptoms you should look for in your kid before labeling him or her with dyslexia.

Moreover, we will discuss some of the FAQs related to the topic.
Not every kind of reading difficulties have to be related to dyslexia. It is very common that kids who just started to learn reading and writing will face problems to read and identify words and letters. It doesn’t make them dyslexic.

Moreover, you cannot ever say that dyslexic child is not good as its peer. In some cases, they even surpass the commoners with their other talents and skills. They only find reading and pronouncing tough, not painting, solving puzzles, or any other activities.

We have prepared the list of the signs and syndromes into three categories – oral, reading, and writing. Remember, an average child might show some of these symptoms. It doesn’t mean that he or she is dyslexic. A dyslexic patient will show most or several numbers of these signs.

So, let’s check out the signs to look for!

Oral Symptoms

• Delays to learn to talk
• Finds hard to pronounce words
• Gathering newer words and enriching vocabulary seems tough
• Finds it hard to follow and stick to instructions
• Bad with directions, confuses with left and right, north and south, etc
• Finds it hard to memorize nursery rhymes, songs, or letters
• Finds it hard to relate concepts and relationships
• Forgets names or pronounce names

Reading Symptoms

• Reading seems too hard for them
• Cannot identify or generate rhyming words and syllables
• Confuses with similar words and sounds, aka phonemic awareness
• Finds it hard to identify and remember the sounds of the letters in an alphabet
• Cannot remember or confuses with similar shapes of the letter, for example, confuses “b” with “d” and so on
• Transpose the sequence of the letters in words
• Struggles to pronounce longer words
• Feels shy to read out loud
• Bad at reading comprehensions
• Reads slowly and struggle badly

Written Language Symptoms

• Too much spelling mistakes
• Mistakes with same words every time
• Bad at revising and proofreading
• Disorganized writing
• Writes too slowly

Other Common Symptoms

• Difficulty to identify the names of the colors, alphabet, and objects
• Weaker memory
• Has to go through the same concept multiple times to grasp them
• Easily distracted and often procrastinates
• Gradual low performance
• Hates schools and school works
• Dyslexic relatives of parents

If your child has several of the above-mentioned symptoms, you should consult experts and check if he or she has dyslexia. Although, it is very common to have one or two signs in any average child.

Other Learning Disorders Similar to Dyslexia

There are a few disorders which are too similar to dyslexia. Often many parents think that their children have dyslexia while they are the victim of other but similar neurological syndromes.

It is very important that you know the differences among these learning disorders. Check out the syndromes below before giving your child the tag of dyslexic.

Dysgraphia – Difficulties to Write Properly

• Cannot be sure of the prominent hand to write
• Slower or poor handwriting
• Messy handwriting and disorganized papers
• Finds too hard to copy texts
• Weaker hand motor skill
• Cannot remember the ideal or usual pattern to write letters

Dyscalculia – Hardship with Numbers

• Finds it hard to count the numbers sequentially
• Often misreads numbers
• Finds it hard to memorize common mathematical laws and facts
• Too many mathematical errors
• Often confuses between addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – Difficulties to Retain Attention

• Easily distracted
• Mood swings
• Inattentive
• Cannot concentrate on a topic for a long time
• Distracted and impulsive
• Shows hyperactive behaviors

Dyspraxia – Difficulties to Use Motor Skills Properly

• Weak coordination of physical movements
• Faces difficulties to use facial muscles to pronounce words

Bad at Organization

• Often loses objects, books, and papers
• Weaker sense of time
• Forgets to do chores or tasks
• Messy desk and room
• Can get overwhelmed by too many instructions
• A tendency to work slowly

Some might often get confused with such symptoms and believe that the child is suffering from dyslexia. While in fact, it might not be the case. Although, you should seek professional help whichever the case is.

Your Kid is Struggling: Social and Emotional Impacts

A dyslexic child has to go through a lot. Not only he or she is doing bad academically, but he or she might also be emotionally shattered. It’s very common for them to feel inferior. Moreover, some students might be mocked by other students for their unusual behavior and constant bad academic results.

We even heard a lot of stories of bullying. Such negative impacts might do even more harm and damage to the dyslexic child.

We often find parents telling the social awkwardness their dyslexic children are facing. It’s very natural for a kid to feel shallow about and being ashamed of their disability. Such a kid will also find it hard to interact with his or her peer.

Moreover, dyslexic children might even feel awkward to tell their parents about the problems they are facing each and every day. Can you imagine how hard it would be for just a kid to go through such difficult moments?

As his or her parent, you should always be by their side and try to make him or her normal about everything. You could also try to identify some of the other skills that he or she might be good at.

Encourage them to flourish in the sectors where they feel comfortable. Try to overshadow their disabilities with the positive attitudes and their stronger skills. For example, if your child is good at painting, encourage them to paint more, praise them. Or if he or she is good at sports, let him or her play more often. Such activities will help him or her to overcome the negativities.

How Could You Diagnose Dyslexia?

Diagnosing your kid for dyslexia is not a simple task. The basic reason is almost all the kids face difficulties to read at the beginning. So, there is no definite way to differentiate the average kids and dyslexic kids.

Although, some specific evaluations might be helpful to identify such disorder. Such evaluations consider the reading deficit, hearing deficit and other social and cognitive behaviors.

Although, you need to wait until your kid starts going to pre-school to be sure of these evaluations. If we are thinking about the age, the age of eight should be the ideal assessment time.

If you can see the probable symptoms in your kid, you could ask the school district to evaluate the previous results and the regular class performance. You will see a significant amount of distance between the ideal benchmark and the performance of your child.

Only after judging the intellectual capabilities, regular class performance, homework, and behavior you could come to a conclusion. Although, we suggest you not to take any rash decision and consult a doctor or an expert who has enough medical knowledge.

If by any chance you think that your kid has probable dyslexia, you should consult with the school district and come up with a unique academic plan for your child. You could even try enrolling your son or daughter to a special school where he or she might get better academic help and maintain a proper pace.

Consulting with psychiatrists, neuro-specialists or reading specialists is also a great step. Such actions would help you to pinpoint your child’s condition and set up a proper plan for him or her.

Also, you should adhere to the suggestions of the experts rather making decisions on your own. They are way more qualified to resolve the issue.
You could even share the suggestions of the experts to the school district so that they could take special care of your kid.

When Should The Kid be Evaluated for Dyslexia?

It’s quite common for a kid in first grade to stutter while reading or confuse similar words and letters. You shouldn’t be too worried if your child is too young. But if the same problem persists for years and your child fails to learn reading even in third or fourth grade, you should be worried.

As we have said, the age of eight or the third grade is the ideal time for your child to be evaluated for dyslexia symptoms and dyslexia signs.

But you have to be very delicate with them as your kid might already feel shallow or meek as they are ashamed of themselves. He or she might even feel ashamed to be friends with the other kids.

Dr. Shaywitz, a dyslexia specialist, feels that there is a gap between the cognitive growth and the reading ability of the dyslexic children. The sooner the parents and the teachers act to mitigate this gap, the better it is for the child.

If the gap broadens too wide, it could more be complicated to help the child to overcome dyslexia. But in any situations, you cannot judge your child or pressurize them. That might cause opposite and negative reactions.

Is it Necessary to Do Dyslexia Tests?

The simple answer would be – yes, it is very important to evaluate your child if you think he or she might have dyslexia. The reason is quite obvious, the sooner you detect whether your kid does or doesn’t have dyslexia, the better the chances are of treating them.

Generally, the teachers and the parents are the first people to identify that a kid has dyslexia. Further tests and diagnoses are done later on. Experts and researchers have narrowed down why it is so important to evaluate your kid at the early stages. The reasons are somewhat like these –

Diagnose Early, Treat Early

It is much easier to pinpoint the problem if you can identify the problem much sooner. Not every case of dyslexia is the same. You can cancel out the unnecessary options and go for the much more specific causes that are troubling the child. Moreover, the doctor can analyze the patient better and give proper guidance that would truly help the child.

To Clear Away The Confusion

As we have mentioned earlier, there are more syndromes just like dyslexia but not. For example, it is quite common for parents to be confused between dysgraphia and dyslexia. So, you have to be sure of the exact problem your child is suffering from.

Also, the treatment givers and the parents should know the right way to treat the problematic child. Such kids cannot learn the way other normal children learn. The gradual performance drop might cause pressure on the child. Even the parent could act quite harsh without knowing the fact behind the result drop.

Proper Documentation

The treatment result and process should always be well-documented for further analysis. Such documentation paves the way for better treatment. If you don’t evaluate the child at the early stage, things could be too late to recover. You don’t want yourself to be in that situation.

Considering all the facts, you should act fast and act early. The sooner you evaluate your child, the better their recovery chances become.

How to Evaluate Kids with Dyslexia?

There are a number of things to be considered while you are planning to do an evaluation for dyslexia. For example, one must consider the child’s family history, the IQ of the child, motor skill function, etc.

So, let’s take a look at the factors you should always consider during the evaluation –

The Background Check

In a lot of cases, we have seen the child to be dyslexic if he or she has a family history dyslexia as it is genetic. Even the cases of late or delayed speech should be considered. It makes the chances of a child to be dyslexic increase to a great extent. So, one should keep written record of the background of the patient; a form could be of great help in this case.

Moreover, the written documentation should also include the type of education the child received – regular or homeschooling. The academic result should be considered too as well as the homework. The exercise books could be a great source of information.

Oral Abilities Not Intelligence

The older methods of evaluation included intelligence tests. Many still think that the disability to properly read or spell could be the reason behind dyslexia. But recent studies rule out this possibility.

We should keep in mind that dyslexia is a type of reading and speaking disability not any sign of lower intellect. Actually, many dyslexic children are considered to be highly intelligent and creative. So, the intelligence level cannot determine the probability of having dyslexia.

Instead of doing the intelligence tests, as a parent, you should consider looking for the signs of oral disabilities. Try to notice if your child had problems speaking out particular words or frequently making the same spelling mistakes, or writing the letters in any weird way.

If the diagnosing child is slightly old, say is in third or fourth grade, you can check for the class performances and academic results.

Difficulty to Recognizing or Distinguishing Words

One of the most common ways to identify a dyslexic patient is to ask them to read out words. A dyslexic child finds it hard to distinguish between the similar looking words. For example, your kid might be finding it hard to differentiate between the words like “big” and “dig,” or “pink” and “link” etc.

Two things should be taken into account – the accuracy and the time he or she needs to properly identify the words. We are not asking you to ask them to speak the tougher words, just tell them to pronounce simple words.

Decoding Words

Word decoding could be a great way to judge the oral skills of a child. During this test, you will ask the kid to speak out the unfamiliar words with the knowledge of the sound of the letters. If a kid has the slightest knowledge about the syllables and the basic sounds, he or she could pass this “word-attack” challenge. A dyslexic child would find it very hard to identify the proper sound of the words.

Using imaginary words instead of the real words will be a clever trick. For example, you should ask them to pronounce words like “brog” or “nuck.” In this way, you could truly judge their ability to identify the true sound of the letters so that they cannot rely on simple memorizing.

Spelling Similar Words

One of the main complication a dyslexic child face is to spell the words properly. It becomes even harder for them if the letters in the word are too similar. Moreover, the child has to pair up the letters and sounds of them in a word. It seems too hard for them. So, such a spelling test will tell you if your kid is actually suffering from dyslexia or not.

In some senses, you could say that a spelling test is kind of the opposite of decoding words. In this case, you can test your child’s memories – both long and short term.

A lot of experts believe that spelling the most severe form of a problem a dyslexic child faces. Not only it weakens a child’s oral skills but also hurts the writing skills.

Phonology

Phonology simply means the process of creating a sound properly. It is vitally important to speak up the words fluently. Every language of the world is actually made of certain sounds – the correct pattern of sounds make up the languages.

So, what should you do? Simply ask your child to speak out some of the common words and check if he or she is having any difficulty to produce the accurate sounds. It could be a spelling quiz for grade 1 or a spelling quiz for grade 2. However, if your child older, say is in the eighth grade, you can try the same test with a spelling quiz for grade 8.

A normal kid can read or speak out the words fluently without putting much effort. It seems all natural and without too much conscious effort. A troubled child might even find it difficult to recall the actual sound of the words.

Reading Out Comprehensions

This evaluation test is quite easy. Just ask them to read out a passage from a storybook. While your child is reading out the passages, try to look for inconsistency in fluency. There is another thing you should look for if your child is skipping words or not.

You should choose a complicated comprehension with too much grammatical complexity. Rather a simple passage from a children book should be good to go with. Also, you should consult with the teachers of the child. They might give you valuable information regarding the difficulties in reading comprehensions.

A dyslexic child tends to do fine while they are listening to a passage from a book, the problem occurs when they are asked to read it out.

These are the common and the most simplistic forms of evaluations that can help you to identify if your child is facing problems with words. If he or she shows these potential symptoms, you should hurry up and consult with doctors or experts. With proper care, they can still lead a normal and happy life.

How Can The Teachers Help?

The teachers of your child can be your best friend to help your child overcome dyslexia. There is no better way to keep track of your child’s progress other than consulting the teachers.

The teachers know the benchmark every student should pass and how much you could expect from a child of a certain age. They can help you with providing a regular update also help the student overcome the situation with the help of various academic techniques and methods.

But remember, the teachers are trained to solve the reading problems for regular kids. If they try too hard to implement the traditional methods, your kid might fell too much pressurized. The last thing you want to do is to pressure your kid. They might crumble down.

Moreover, the teacher could help your kid by providing books that would be suitable for your kid. Some teachers even have professional training to handle such delicate students as dyslexia is now a very common problem around the globe.

The Classroom Doesn’t Have to Be a Prison Cell!

A child with dyslexia in many cases gets afraid of the classrooms. He or she might feel that others are constantly judging them or mocking him or her. The teachers and the peer should be helpful rather than reminding him or her of their disability.

A good way to get rid of this problem could be choosing a specialized school for dyslexic children. A troubled child could be benefitted highly as he or she would the proper care that normal schools will not give them. Still, if the teacher and the students can be friendly, the child will get the proper environment to grow without hesitation.

On the other hand, if a child with dyslexia is constantly being nagged about his or her poor performance, things could get much worse within a short period. A child’s mind is very delicate, and such nasty behavior could lead to probable trauma and anguish.

Moreover, the peer could bully the child or make fun of him or her. The teachers and the school administration should make sure that other kids don’t bully such a poor soul.

Now, we would like to share some of the good practices in the classroom that could help a child to overcome or minimize the effects of dyslexia.

Lighten Up the Classroom

• Prepare an outline for the lesson of each class – what is going to be taught and how this lesson adds up to the whole syllabus of the complete chapter. At the end of the class, the teacher should also summarize the lesson before the class. This very technique could help to convert the short-term memories into long-term memories.
• While giving the homework, make the students write it down in their personal notebook. Ask the students to maintain a different notebook for the homework so that it can be reviewed afterward.
• Ask the students to maintain a study circle, maybe ask them to write down the phone numbers of the fellow study circle. Thus they could maintain a connection with other kids and keep up the pace together like a pack.
• Try to give the lesson in a written manner. If you use verbal methods, it might seem effective for shorter terms, but students will soon forget the gist of the lessons. On the other hand, writing down the lessons in every class will help them maintain a sequence of the lessons and be helpful for the longer term.
• Encourage the pupil to make a daily routine and help to maintain it. Organizing behaviors help a person to build up an organized overall life and create a positive attitude towards the life.
• Before going deeper into the details of the study material, create an impelling introduction that would keep the student’s attention for a longer time. After that, break the materials into shorter lists. In this way, a teacher can connect with the students in a better way.
• A teacher should not just write on the board and ask the class to copy it down on the notebooks. A dyslexic student might find it hard to copy texts from other sources. Instead, a teacher should prepare premade notes that he or she could hand down to the whole class before each and every lesson.
• Keep the class motivated and never bore the class with overcomplicated materials. A class should be cheerful as a more joyous scenario builds up the environment for study.

Don’t Make the Blackboard Too Boring!

• Use multiple colors while writing on the board. The white chalk on the blackboard or the use of a black marker on the whiteboard makes the board look pale and boring. Moreover, the different colors help a student to distinguish between facts and help them to understand the lesson more efficiently.
• Use spaces! Some teachers tend to write a lot on the board without giving much space between sentences or words. It should be a playground of words (images) and void.
• Don’t rush! Some students might take a bit more time to copy the materials on the board; if you erase them too quickly, some students might feel pressured.

Reading Out Loud

• It is a healthy practice to ask the students to read out comprehensions in front of everyone. It breaks the shackle of shyness in the students and boosts their self-confidence. Moreover, this practice can be a great identifier whether a child has a problem reading the texts. A student’s dyslexia symptoms could be identified, and the teacher could notify the parents about it.
• A teacher should never ask the kids to read comprehension that is beyond the skill of such a young age. The idea is to encourage the kids and develop the skill of public speaking not to make them afraid of it.
• Don’t push any dyslexic child to read out in front of the class. It’s more likely that he or she will fail to read it out easily. Moreover, he or she might feel ashamed or feel shallow. Rather, a teacher should work one-on-one with such kids.
• The reading comprehension should not be confined only to the textbooks. Reading passages from storybooks will make the class lively as well as enhance the skill of public speaking and pronunciation at the same.

The Spelling Bee Mock Sessions

• It can be a great practice to ask the students to spell out words just like in a spelling bee competition. It will help the students to get rid of the fear of spelling words and at the same time make them fond of this great competition.
• Special care should be given to the dyslexic children, and everyone should help them to get rid of the fear and give them a positive boost. The teacher should keep an eye students and make sure no one is pinching the dyslexic kid.
• The key to dilute the fear is encouragement and motivation. A teacher has a vital role to play to build up the future of a child. He or she should take charge of making a classroom inspiring and motivating.
• Gradually, encourage them to participate in spelling tests. 
• Introduce a bit of fun by teaching them idioms and their meaning. 
• Now you can take part in online Spelling Bee too! Check out the SBO section on Spellquiz today!

Math – The Most Feared Subject among the Dyslexics

• Math is not like English literature or reading out stories. It has different symbols and separate logics that establish connections among the numbers. We have seen examples of dyslexic children to be extraordinarily good at math. But the number is thin. The teacher should clarify the logic of the mathematical symbols very well in the class.
• A teacher should be patient with the dyslexic child especially while solving mathematical problems. It is just so normal for them to be confused with the numbers and the symbols.
• Keep the class entertained with smart mathematical tricks. Kids can get fascinated with the simple tricks – it seems like riddles to them, not study!
  Help a dyslexic child to learn the uses of calculators. It is not giving them the privilege; it’s just helping them to cope with the situation.

Don’t Make Homework to Be a Burden

• It goes without saying that a dyslexic child has to go through a lot each day in the school. They often feel tired or stressed after the school. So, the teacher should be understanding regarding the matter. Rather than giving out loads of homework, such a child should be relieved from the burden of homework.
• A teacher should only give homework if it is actually needed. You see, a dyslexic child is different than the rest of the peer. A teacher should also have a one on one relationship with such kids and give a different type of homework than the others.
• If a child still finds it hard to complete the selective homework, both teachers and parents should look into the matter and try to reduce the pressure as much as possible. The more helpful everyone can be to him or her the cozier and motivated the child would feel.

Be the Role Model Your Kid Needs

Being the parent of a dyslexic child can never be an easy task. There should be a lot going on your mind too. Even you could feel stressed handling the situation. So, how should you cope up with the situation?

Don’t feel stressed, here are some healthy practices that should keep you going –

Motivate Yourself

If you want to keep your child motivated and inspired, you have to be the source of inspiration. You cannot expect the situation to brighten up if you are feeling gloomy and stressed.

Engage with your child and grow up hobbies or activities together like – having a garden, watching movies together, painting together, etc. Such activities will not only cheer both of you but also make your bonds stronger.

Build Up a Healthy Daily Routine

As we have said earlier, maintaining a daily routine can make you more organized. This is true for you as well as your kid. A routine or organized lifestyle will bring positive changes in your lives. Doing DIY projects with your child might cheer him or her up. 

Be a Friend!

As your child has dyslexia, he or she might find it hard to make friends. Life can be lonely for him or her. If this is the case, you should try to be the friend of your child. Play with them, go to picnics or hiking, see movies together – your child needs friends.

If your child doesn’t have friends, he or she feels dull all the time. Being friendly with him or her can also help them to cope with dyslexia.

Don’t Remind Your Child of Dyslexia Much Often

When parents find out that their child is suffering from dyslexia, they tend to become paranoid. They put so much effort to help the child that it causes the opposite effect. You don’t have to remind every now and then that he or she has dyslexia.

Not only your words but also your behavior could remind them of this fact. Try to act normal and joyous. Otherwise, your child might blame themselves as they could be delicate about the matter.

And finally, you should cherish the moments together. The only way you could win the fight against dyslexia and make your child happy is with love and laughter. Live in the present and cherish your life every moment as you go – enjoy your life!

Higher Education: Is It a Dream or Reality?

Okay, now we will be talking about the serious topic – is it possible for a dyslexic patient to receive higher education in college or university? Well, those of you who are desperately looking for the answer, there is a good news and a bad news. The good news is – yes, your child can join college or university even if he or she has dyslexia. The bad news is – the process is quite tough and lengthy.

In recent years, we have the number of students with learning disabilities soaring which is a great news! The overall process might take a long time. There are just much to work on – passing all the prerequisite tests, selecting the institute, going through the application process, and finally entering the institute.

So, let’s get started with the details, shall we? First of all, as a student with a learning disability, your child should start preparing from the age of sixteen. You should apply to the personnel at the Individual Education Program (IEP) team and start the process as they suggest.

With the help of the IEP committee, you should set the educational planning for your kid and set the parameters of educational transition. In some countries of some states in the USA, such application should be made at the age of fourteen or earlier.

The educational planning should be carefully done, and the goals should be chosen wisely as the committee takes these decisions very seriously.
An SAT, ACT, or AP test score might help the chance of getting into college. The IEP committee might ask for additional psychological tests to see if your child is capable enough to join the college or university.

A student with Learning Disability (LD) might find the following programs in the colleges or university –

Structured Literacy Program

This is the premium quality program that would help your child to get the education your child deserves. In this program, your child would get the benefit of one-on-one learning sessions with the teachers and student monitoring facility.

Coordinated Services

This service is neither as structured nor as comprehensive as the previous one. The student can voluntarily participate in the services.

Services

It is the last category of the services an LD can receive. Students seeking minimum accommodation might select this program.

Joining colleges or universities for higher education is a huge step for a kid with dyslexia. You should pay a visit to the institute and check out the campus environment with your kid. Check out if the environment is friendly enough or is there a scope him or her to grow mentally as it will be changing the life of your kid in every possible way.

As we have said, the process may vary from country to country. While this phase, both you and your child have to be strong and motivated. Your child’s behavior should reflect independence and passion. Never lose hope and keep dreaming!

Concluding Words

Dealing with dyslexia can be hectic, but it is not the end of the world. But you are not the only parent in the world who are going through the same unhappy situation. You can check the books, websites, and other helping references that could smooth out the journey as you go.

Homeschooling could also be a great solution to such a situation. You could check out our guide on homeschooling and guide on personalized learning here. There are also a lot of schools dedicated to dyslexic children. Even many regular schools have started dyslexia-friendly initiatives in the past couple of years.

To give further help, many schools and NGOs have dyslexia centers. So, you see, having a child with dyslexia doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the end of the world. Keep loving your child and give him or her all the emotional support you can give.

In such a tough situation, you are the biggest support and best friend of your kid. Show him or her the path of happiness – there is always light at the end of the dark tunnel.

A New Way of Testing