by Gillian Taber

Created on: June 23, 2009

Teaching your child the alphabet means giving them the building blocks with which they learn to read. Giving meaning to the sounds and words is hugely important. Learning letters and sounds by rote is boring and meaningless to a child. Give color and life to the alphabet and that enjoyment will help give them the enthusiasm they need to start reading.

Phonics - Learning the letters of the alphabet is done in two ways, by naming the letter and by the letter sound. The latter is known as phonics and it is the more useful method when preparing a child for reading. Imagine you are a child looking at the word 'Dog' on a page. Saying the names of the letters, D.O.G., gives you no clue what the word might be. Try saying the letter sounds to yourself and you can instantly hear that the word is dog. This is how it works for a child when they are learning to read.

How to teach phonics - Incorporating the alphabet into everyday life is the simplest way to teach your child at home. Combine the two methods as often as possible and you will teach your child letter name and sound together. For example, when you are reading a favorite book to your child, point to the name of a character and say "Oh look, Barney starts with B, buh for Barney.

A point needs to be made here. When teaching phonics you need to avoid the 'grunt trap'. It is all too easy to say the sound of a letter and tack 'uh' onto the end of it. An example of the grunt trap is the letter 'P'. When you sound out the letter it is simply a brief, almost puffing pronunciation over pursed lips. It is not 'puh' or 'per'. Clip the ends of the sounds and don't teach your child to add the grunt to the end. Common sounds that end up in the grunt trap are:

C - Should be a short, sharp sound and not cur or cuh. Like the c at the beginning of cookie.

H - Should be a huffing sound, like breathing out sharply.

M - Should be a lips together humming sound. This can be difficult to achieve but practice makes perfect.

N - Very similar to m but the tongue is towards the roof of the mouth and the lips are apart.

Another important note about teaching phonics is school. Eventually your child will be attending school and you need to bear this in mind. It is worth talking to the school your child will be attending to find out how they teach phonics. A child can be very easily confused if they are taught with one phonic style at home and another when they reach school. Try and use the same system as the school if you can and

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