- What Is Phonetic Spelling?
- Benefits Of Learning Phonetic Spelling For Children
- What Are Phonetic Words?
- List Of Different Consonants And Vowels With Their Phonetic Sounds
- What Is The Difference Between Phonemes Vs Graphemes?
- How To Teach Your Preschooler Spelling Using Phonetics
- Activities To Learn Phonetic Spelling For Children
Words like gate and get, slip and sleep, rich and reach, etc., may sound similar to kids. Why does this happen? This happens because of children’s inability to differentiate between sounds. Thus, learning English phonetic spelling is essential for children.
But what are phonetic spellings? How to teach this to kids?
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Don’t stress out. We have got you covered. This article has all the answers to your questions. We have discussed everything from the meaning of phonetic spelling for kindergarten students and their benefits to how to teach phonetic spelling to kids with the help of fun activities.
Let’s begin.
What Is Phonetic Spelling?
Phonetic spellings help children spell longer and more difficult words easily. To help children spell words, each letter of the words is represented through a single spoken sound. In simple words, phonetic spelling for children is the way kids speak the alphabet. The relationship between the alphabet and the sound they produce is phonetics.
For example, the letter ‘C’ produces the sound ‘si’.
Benefits Of Learning Phonetic Spelling For Children
Now you know what phonetic spellings are, let’s take a look at the benefits of learning phonetics for kids.
1. Enhances Language & Vocabulary
Practising phonetics with the help of different passages or stories increases the chances of enhancing kids’ vocabulary and gives them the power to decode different words while reading. As they become habitual, their reflexes quicken, and they understand the meaning of a word while reading it, which increases their word stock.
2. Develops Patience
While practising phonetic spellings, children sit and try to break words into different sounds and read them. This activity requires a lot of patience and focus. Kids develop this habit and apply it to the other activities they do. Therefore, they learn to keep calm and remain patient while learning phonetic spellings.
3. Teaches Syllables
Phonetics helps kids develop an understanding the syllable structure as they acknowledge that small things like open syllables always end in long sound-producing vowels. Whereas closed syllables generally end with a consonant and possess a short vowel with it. Without practising phonetic spellings, it is almost impossible to observe these small differences.
4. Academic Development
Learning phonetics benefits not only kids with English but also with other subjects. It helps kids speak fluently, builds confidence in them to participate in debates and other competitions and helps them perform well in academics too.
5. Improves Brain Activity
Reading is a great activity for kids, because when they read, new neural pathways develop in their brains. Kids will fail or struggle to read properly without understanding the sounds of different letters in words. Thus, phonetic spelling gives them the power to read.
What Are Phonetic Words?
Phonetics is the way that spoken words sound. When we encoutner an unfamiliar word, we break it into its phonetic parts, saying each in the order in which they appear.
List Of Different Consonants And Vowels With Their Phonetic Sounds
Here are phonetic words examples of different consonants and vowel sounds for children. After reading this, children will learn how to spell different words by pronouncing the sounds slowly and clearly.
Examples Of Phonetic Words With Different Consonant Letters
| Sound | Example |
| b | but, bad |
| ch | cheese, cheek or nature – spelt with a t, but makes the same sound |
| d | do, dog |
| f | fur, food, enough- ‘gh’ sounds like ‘f’ |
| g | go, bug |
| h | hop, ahead |
| l | leg, letter |
| m | man, mom |
| n | no, tin – ‘n’ sound is at the end |
| ng | ring, sing |
| p | pen, tip – ‘p’ sound is at the end |
| r | run, far – ‘r’ sound is heard at the end when pronounced |
| s/ss | see, pass |
| sh | she, emotion – spelt differently, but when pronounced, the ‘sh’ sound is heard |
| t | twig, bet – heard at the end when pronounced |
| th | the, teeth |
| v | visit, have |
| w | we |
| wh | whisper, what |
Examples Of Phonetic Words With Different Vowel Letters
| Sound | Example |
| a | cat, hat |
| air | square – spelt differently, but when pronounced, sounds like ‘air’ |
| ar | party, start |
| ay | stay, sway |
| ai | pain, chain |
| er | letter, burger |
| ee | fleece, beep |
| i | kit, lit |
| o | lot, toast |
| oe | shoe, poem |
| oo | food, boot |
| ou | out, count |
| ow | mouth – even though it’s spelt differently, you can still hear the ‘ow’ sound |
| u | gum, bun |
What Is The Difference Between Phonemes Vs Graphemes?
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound within a word.
A grapheme is any given letter or combination of letters that represent a phoneme.
Both phonemes and graphemes play an important role in phonetic spelling, as they are all about the sound of words. Some languages follow phonemic orthography – a system where the graphemes, i.e., the written symbols, correspond exactly to the phonemes, i.e., the spoken sounds, of the language.
How To Teach Your Preschooler Spelling Using Phonetics
Let’s take a look at some ways to teach your little one spelling using phonetics.
1. Sound Of Alphabet
Make your child practice the sound the letters make. Teaching them to pronounce them correctly from the outset, can prove to be very beneficial in the long run.
2. Oral Blending
Teach your child to glue sounds together to produce a word. This way, they will also learn to spell the same words they are reading and also understand their meaning simultaneously.
3. Practice, Practice, Practice
Make your child practice what they have learned. You should also encourage your child to read at this stage.
Activities To Learn Phonetic Spelling For Children
Finally, time to explore some fun activities that will be helpful to children in learning phonetics.
1. Alphabet Ball
All you need for this activity is a softball. Call out a sound and throw the softball to your child. Ask your child to catch the ball and say a word that begins with that sound. Then ask your child to throw the ball back to you and say a word. You have to catch the ball while saying the sound it begins with. Continue playing the game to make your child practice phonetic spellings.
2. Magnetic Letters
Get some magnetic letters for this game and something to stick them onto. Arrange the letters in a bowl and place them at a distance from the magnetic surface. Ask your child to stand near the surface and then call out a sound. Your child has to run towards the bowl and pick the letter associated with that sound and bring it to the surface to stick it.
3. Flip The Pancake
If your little one loves pancakes, then they’re sure to love this phonetic game. Using some coloured paper, cut out 8–10 circles of pancakes and write out the letter sound you want to teach your child. Grab a silicon spatula and ask your child to toss over each pancake and say a word starting with the letter sound on the pancake.
4. Newspaper Letter Sound Hunt
Give a child a section of the newspaper to read. Now, give your child a letter sound and ask them to find and circle all the words on that page that starts with that sound. Kids will love reading and finding words and also improve their reading skills in the process.
5. Flip & Match
Make two sets of cards with phonetic words with different consonants and vowels. Shuffle these cards and lay them out face down. Ask your kid to turn over any two cards at a time. If the words on the cards start with the same letter sound, they have to leave them as it is. If not, they have to lay them face down again and flip the new cards to find the pair.
Every child has their own way of learning things. Some children learn reading with little knowledge of phonetics, while others will need extra care for it. However, you will notice that a child with an in-depth understanding of phonetics will easily be able to read new texts. Not only this, but their pronunciation will also be better than children with no knowledge of phonetics. Their confidence will reflect in their reading. So do invest the effort, we’re sure in the long run it’s definitely going to be worth it.
Also Read:
Phonological Awareness for Preschoolers
Letter Recognition Activities for Kindergaren Kids
Phonics Activities for Preschoolers to Build Literacy Skills
