The Alphabet Tricks That Parents Should Know
The ABC’s have some tricks that can make reading difficult for kids. And, also frequently stump parents trying to explain to their child why something strange is going on with some words.
The Latin Alphabet forms the basis for writing modern English. The Latin alphabet has only six vowels(A, E, I, O, U,Y) whereas English has sixteen vowel sounds. Additionally, the Latin alphabet has only twenty-one consonant letters, while English has twenty-five consonant sounds, counting Y as a consonant.
Our modern alphabet therefore needs to be stretched extensively to fit the English language. We do this by using letter combinations and teams of letters to fit the English language.
We stretch the alphabet by using letter combinations like OY and CH for the extra vowel and consonant sounds needed for our spoken and written language. By using teams, and by constructing syllables in special ways, we make an old Latin alphabet represent all the speech sounds of Modern English.
An alphabet letter has two aspects. It has a name and a sound. The name is what we call the letter, the sound is what the letter stands for in the spoken word. A source of confusion that I often see with beginning readers(and older readers who struggle) is the fact that the long sounds of the vowel are the same as the name of the letter. When a young child learns the word SO they know to blend the sound of the S to the letter name of O. That largely explains when we see a child spelling TAR as TR. They have trouble understanding why one can’t spell TAR as TR.
Here’s another example that parents can relate to. Do you remember when we were taught that “when two vowels go walking, the first vowel does the talking.” But that’s not always the case. In fact that “rule” only works about one-third of the time.
We all know that there are many irregularities in English spelling. Many of our most common words are not pronounced exactly the way the letters of the words suggest. For example, the word SAID is pronounced with a short E sound. But the vowel team AI is normally used to show a long A sound. There are many other words with the same peculiarities- HEAD is another of such words. The vowel team EA suggests a long E sound for the word HEAD that isn’t there.
These exceptions, and others, have caused some in the reading field to distrust phonics instruction. Teachers who use phonics from the beginning will tell you that exceptions to the rules that occur in common words do not actually cause much confusion if the child is secure in their knowledge of the regular letter-sounds. If you teach a child to pronounce AI with a long A sound, and then tell them that said is a funny word because AI in it is funny, they can handle said perfectly well.
So the bottom line is that parents should bone up on phonics and spelling rules to best support their children’s reading. Begin with teaching the sounds of consonant letters. Once the consonant sounds are mastered, move to vowel sounds beginning with the short vowel sounds. Explain that written language is speech written down and that the sounds of letters and letter combinations matter.
In conclusion a word about spelling. It is easy to assume that, since your children are learning letter sounds for reading, they will be able to to use them in writing. In fact, it doesn’t work that way. Using phonics for reading does not automatically help help children spell reliably. Phonics does indeed help with reading, but research shows that phonics skills do not transfer to spelling ability without special attention to spelling practice, Many readers in grades 3 and above are good readers but poor spellers. Attention should be given to the spelling of irregular words and multisyllabic words as children read.
Dr. Mario Campanaro is a reading author and researcher who provides professional staff development services to schools. He has taught students at all grade levels including reading courses at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
He currently provides tutorial services to school and also offers private tutoring sessions.
His goal is to advance the reading proficiency of all kids. He is happy to answer questions about how to help improve children’s reading. He can be reached at mario1206@att.net.