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Young Child Doesn’t Get Phonics

Young Child Doesn’t Get Phonics

Question: My second-grader simply can’t sound out most new words; however, she is a very good reader. If you tell her what a word is, she remembers it or figures it out through context. Her teacher’s reaction is: “Some kids just don’t get phonics.” This remark bothered me. Is it important for my child to become more skilled with phonics? — Good Reader

Answer: Children learn to read in different ways. Your daughter is a sight reader. This is the way children were taught to read years ago. It would be helpful if your daughter could use phonics to recognize the first sound in words, as it would make it easier for her to use context in recognizing them. While she may never be great at phonics, it is highly probable that she already has some knowledge of phonics simply through her ability to read so well.

You should be able to increase your child’s knowledge of phonics by teaching her some common word families. A word family is a combination of letters that makes a certain sound. If your child knows the sound of a word family, such as -ay, she would be able to sound out and read -ay family words including hay, day, may, say and pay.

The word family approach is incorporated in many basal reading series, phonics systems, reading-readiness lessons and spelling series. When your child cannot sound out a word, recognizing a word family in it will help her to do so.

Here are the 38 most commonly used word families used in one syllable words: -ay,- ill, -ip, -at, -am, -ag, -ack, -ank, -ick, -ell, -ot, -ing, -ap, -unk, -ail, -ain, -eed, -y, -out, -ug, -op, -in, -an, -est, -ink, -ow, -ew, -ore, -ed ,-ab, -ob, -ock, -ake, -ine, -ight, -im, -uck and -um.

Your daughter can have fun learning these words. Introduce her to a word family and then have her see how many words she can write. For reading practice, visit dearteacher.com and look at our Skinny Books that are word family readers.

Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts have taught at every level from kindergarten through college and have co-authored more than 100 books. They have also been in the trenches getting six children through school. Their children have run the gamut, from being in gifted and talented programs to special education resource rooms. Because of their experiences, they see themselves as interpreters between parents and schools as they have been on both sides.

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