Synthetic Phonics and Literacy
Ever heard your child’s teacher talk about literacy and wasn’t quite sure what they meant or where to start? Literacy is the ability to read, write, speak, and listen in a way that helps us to communicate. It allows us to make sense of things including maps, signs, books, magazines, television, timetables, instructions, and conversations.
Around 15-25% of Aussie children can have learning difficulties with literacy. The children who thrive with literacy can flourish in a typical classroom, leaving our little ones who have difficulty, back on the shore. If they have missed the boat with learning to read and write, it can certainly be a struggle to catch up with the rest of their peers.
Speech Pathologists have expert knowledge in all forms of communication. With this expertise – we can certainly help with literacy difficulties. Consider us a speed boat (or speech boat?) that will give your child that bit of extra help to catch up in the classroom.
It is vital to use an evidence-based approach to help your little ones achieve literacy success. The evidence shows us that explicitly teaching systematic synthetic phonics greatly benefits a large number of children in developing literacy skills.
Systematic Synthetic Phonics is:
Systematic = ordered from simple to complex and follows a consistent plan
Synthetic = blended or joined
Phonics = the relationship between speech sounds and letters
Explicit teaching = explained in a step by step, clear and engaging way
Systematic synthetic phonics teaches students the relationship between letters and sounds.It highlights the 44 sounds in the English language and that there are multiple letters and letter combinations that make those sounds. The aim is for children to break up (or decode) a word into individual sounds. They can then join (blend) all the sounds together to successfully read or spell the entire word.
In Practise:
For example, a child will be taught the word ‘cat’ by first learning the individual sounds in the word which are /c/, /a/, and /t/. They can then join (blend) the sounds together to make the word ‘cat’.
It is different from traditional reading and writing approaches as synthetic phonics does not rely on memorisation of sight words (you might remember being taught to ‘look’, ‘cover’, and ‘spell’ with sight words at school) or to remember rules that do not always apply to spelling variations. Think about the rule “i before e except after c” - what about the words ‘weird’ or ‘being’? Synthetic phonics instead focuses on words being made up of sounds which are represented by letters.
Small Sprouts therapists are expertly trained in an evidence based synthetic phonics program “Sounds Write”. They are passionate about everyone being able to grow their reading and writing skills and using fun activities to get there.
If you feel like literacy is an area of issue for your child, contact Small Sprouts at 04 358 353 34 or admin@smallsproutstherapy.com.au
Written by Izzy Littler - Small Sprouts Therapy Speech Pathologist