If you’re wondering why we teach phonics when English seems full of exceptions, here’s one word that answers it: confidence.
If your goal is just to teach your child to read and spell a list of words, then I highly recommend memorization. It’s quick and gets the job done. But if you want to raise a confident and capable reader, let’s teach them how to read anything!
I don’t remember exactly how I learned to read, but I’m pretty sure I learned phonics. Here’s how I know (and how you can too!): if you can spell “phonetic” words, you probably learned phonics. I’m great at phonetic spelling but not so great at tricky words (like vacuum– that one always confuses me!)
The good news is that if you teach your child phonics, they’ll be able to read and spell approximately 84% of the words in the English language. About 84% of words follow predictable phonics patterns and can be decoded easily. That should get you really jazzed (okay, maybe not as jazzed as I am about reading and spelling, but you get my point: we can make 84% of words easy by relying on phonics).
Tons of products and games are labeled as “phonics.” It’s become an almost a meaningless marketing term, which is unfortunate because phonics is incredibly meaningful to your child. When you teach phonics, you’re showing them that most words are “figure-outable.” You’re giving them the tools to decode the English language, teaching them they’re capable of deciphering its patterns.
Phonics is all about connecting sounds we hear in words to letter combinations, and it’s important not to get this backwards. Your child is already an expert at sounds (they’ve been mastering sounds since they figured out their animal noises!), so now we just need to teach them which letters spell the sounds they already know. We’re building on a solid foundation—sounds.
Phonics might feel intimidating when you think about teaching the 44 sounds of English with all their letter combinations, but think of it like a staircase: by focusing on one step at a time, you reach the top. Master the letters and CVC words, then you’re ready for digraphs like th, sh, ch, and wh. Don’t get overwhelmed by the big goal—just focus on the “next essential skill.”
When you use the “next essential skill” approach to teach phonics, you change the trajectory of your child’s reading journey. Your purpose isn’t just to move on to books; it’s to give your child the tools they need to read and spell any word.
The key is identifying the next essential skill your child needs to learn. I’ve created a phonics guide so you can learn exactly how to do that. Then, just take 15 minutes out of your day to practice reading and spelling skills together. [Grab the guide here!]
Teaching Phonics Plus the 16% of Tricky Words
So how do we teach phonics and the remaining 16% of tricky words? Explicitly! Meaning actively teaching the skills, because your child isn’t going to just pick up on them in books.
Whether you’re teaching a tricky word or a phonics pattern, I recommend starting with mapping it. Orthographic mapping is the process our brains use to store words so we can recognize them instantly. When your child connects a word’s sounds (phonemes) with its letters (graphemes), the word becomes “mapped” in their memory. This means they don’t have to sound out every word—they start to recognize many words on sight.
Orthographic mapping is perfect for teaching both phonics patterns and tricky words, helping your child learn words quickly and easily.
And don’t let the term orthographic mapping fool you—it’s a straightforward process. It’s really about strategically teaching them to spell. Here’s how it looks:
1. Give your child a word, and have them segment it into sounds. It’s helpful to use a mapping mat, like [this one].
2. Have your child mark the sounds they count in each box. I have my students draw a dot, but you can also use small toys to represent each sound. This step focuses entirely on sounds—not letters yet.
3. Write the letters that match each sound. For example, if your child is learning words with th, you might give them the word bath. They would mark the three sounds they hear, then spell those sounds using letter tiles or by writing them down.
You can download the mapping mat here!
This process solidifies the word in your child’s mind, allowing them to recall sounds and blend them easily when reading. It’s my go-to method for teaching both typical phonics patterns and tricky words.
For Tricky Words
The process is very similar for tricky words. First, your child marks the sounds, then spells the sounds that follow the rules. I teach children to mark the parts that don’t follow the rules with a heart. It’s the “heart part”—the part they need to memorize.
With this process, children learn patterns quickly and typically only need to repeat the process with heart words 1-4 times before these words are embedded in memory.
I explain the exact process for heart words with examples in my recent Youtube video on tricky words. When you teach both phonics and tricky words, you show your child that they can read anything. Now that is confidence-building.
And now, teaching tricky words is even easier. I share weekly heart word lessons within Play to Read Plus, so your child can learn them in less than 10 minutes weekly alongside phonics games they’ll love!
Happy Reading! -Delainey
