When Phonics Doesn't Work

Learning to read is a crucial part of a child’s early education. A systematic synthetic phonics programme aims to support children in developing the skills they need to decode written language and become confident, independent readers.

Sometimes it might seem that your young reader is concentrating too hard on sounding out words and does not really understand what they are reading. Usually, you just need to be patient and remember that everything gets easier with practice. The sounding out skills your child is practising will gradually become more and more automatic. They will then be better able to concentrate on the meaning of what they are reading.

However, some children may find certain aspects of phonics more challenging than others. Phonics is often described as a “bottom-up” approach because it starts with individual sounds and letters and builds these into words. In practice, effective reading instruction usually combines phonics with other strategies, such as vocabulary development, oral language, and comprehension work.

Children can respond differently to various teaching approaches. If phonics feels challenging for your child, it can help to think about which activities seem to support their learning most effectively, such as listening to stories and songs, using visual prompts, or learning through hands-on activities.

Children benefit from being taught in a variety of ways.

Some children benefit from additional visual or practical support alongside phonics instruction. For example, picture books and flashcards can help children connect words with images and meaning. Later on, you can help them to connect words with images by getting them to imagine and draw pictures of things you describe or create interpretive illustrations of stories you read to them.

Kinesthetic learners need to touch and manipulate things so that they can learn through their senses. Activities that help kinesthetic learners include feeling and matching magnetic letters, writing letters with tactile substances such as finger paint, sand or glitter, and cutting out letter shapes.

Phonics and Dyslexia

Research suggests that children with dyslexia often benefit from structured, systematic phonics teaching delivered alongside multisensory support. This might include combining spoken sounds with visual cues, movement, and practical activities, as well as targeted practice and clear feedback.

Phonics, Hearing and Vision

Hearing is important so that children can tell the difference between speech sounds, and clear vision is needed to recognise letters and tell them apart, so it is important to have your child's ears and eyes checked and get problems resolved if necessary.

Children who are severely hearing impaired or deaf face particular challenges.

A fact sheet provided by the National Deaf Children's Society states that deaf children can benefit from phonics. However, even though they have the assistance of modern hearing technology they still need extra learning support.

Deaf children do not develop phonological awareness (the ability to recognise the sounds of speech) or auditory memory (the capacity to remember information that they hear) as quickly as their hearing classmates. Therefore, they need extra practice listening to songs, stories and rhymes to help them catch up. In addition, they may not learn sound and letter correspondences as quickly as other children, so parents may need to give them extra help at home. Parents may also need to ask teachers to minimise background noise to make it easier for their child to hear. It also helps deaf children if their teacher uses hand signs in conjunction with letter sounds.

The phonological awareness of visually impaired children develops normally, so they do not generally have any developmental problems which could make phonics a challenge. Their challenges will be the same ones that they will face with any reading programme. Depending on their particular needs, they should learn Braille or be provided with large print or a magnification device.

Phonics and English Language Learners

Phonics needs to be taught as one part of a well-rounded reading programme.

Children whose first language is not English may also face some difficulties hearing the speech sounds of English correctly, not because they have hearing problems but because they have learnt to listen to different speech sounds. Every language has its own unique set of sounds. For example, while in English we have two separate sounds, l and r , Japanese has one sound that to an English speaker sounds halfway between the two. As a result, Japanese speakers often confuse the letters l and r because they have not learnt to hear the difference between the two, and make spelling mistakes such as writing "lice" instead of "rice".

If you are a parent who speaks a different language at home, this may not be something you can help your child with. The best thing is to continue speaking your own language at home to help your child's general language development. Young children can learn a new language very quickly, and classroom activities such as language games, songs, poems and tongue twisters will soon help them to develop their English listening skills.

Because children develop in different ways and at different rates, phonics works best as part of a balanced approach to reading. If your child is finding phonics difficult, additional support at home and discussion with their teacher can help ensure they receive the support they need.

Continue reading: Phonics Around The World