Phonics is one of the five crucial components for the effective teaching of reading alongside phonemic awareness, oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension identified by the National Reading Panel (2000).

Since, 2000 a large proportion of research into early reading has confirmed their findings (Castles, Rastle & Nation, 2018).

The Education Endowment Foundation (2021) describe phonics as involving the skills of hearing, identifying and using the patterns of sounds to read. As England’s 2006 Rose Review suggests - It is a body of knowledge, skills and understanding that has to be learned.

‘Phonemic awareness’ is the ability to notice, think about and work with sounds in spoken words (Ambruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2006). This is explored in the Developing Phonemic Awareness video.

Phonics instruction involves developing a child’s phonemic awareness and teaching the relationships between the individual sounds (also known as phonemes) of spoken language and the letters (also known as graphemes) of written language. It teaches children to use these relationships to read and write words.

Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in spoken language. Most words have more than one phoneme, for example, the word mat has three phonemes(/m/a/t), fish also has three phonemes (f/i/sh) as sometimes a phoneme is represented by more than one letter.

Graphemes are the written letters or group of letters which represent these speech sounds. A grapheme may be a single letter, such as b, d, f, p, s; or several letters, such as ch, sh, th, ck, ea, igh.

Letters in the alphabet have both a letter name and a sound and this applies whether they are capital letters or lower case.

All writing systems are a kind of code for spoken language, and learning to read requires children to crack how the code works for their language (Castles, Rastle & Nation, 2018).

Phonics gives children the key to unlocking this alphabetic code for their reading and spelling.

There is substantial research evidence that demonstrates early reading progress is most likely to occur when the approach taken to teaching phonics is explicit and systematic especially for those children who are at greatest risk of reading difficulties (Castles, Rastle & Nation, 2018).

Explicit phonics instruction (sometimes referred to as I do it, we do it, you do it) means teaching the alphabetic code through direct explanation, modelling, guided practice and application (Ambruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2006).

A systematic approach involves teaching letter sound correspondences that are carefully selected and organised into a logical sequence. This starts with the simplest and most common graphemes before moving onto to more complex and less common grapheme phoneme correspondences. Usually, these letters and sounds are grouped into sets that can be used to read and spell simple words.

Children should have the opportunity to review, practise and apply their phonics learning through authentic reading and writing experiences throughout the day in order to master their skills. This cycle of review and repetition is another important feature of systematic instruction (International Literacy Association, 2019). Some children will need more repetition and practice than others.

For an adult who is a skilled reader, reading seems simple, effortless and automatic.  Therefore, it can be difficult to understand all the steps involved in decoding a simple word like ‘mat’ for a young reader who has not yet developed automaticity.    Firstly, decoding involves oral blending of spoken sounds to pronounce words for example m- a- t – mat. This progresses to looking at the graphemes in written words from left to right to say each corresponding phoneme in turn, then blending the sounds, either aloud or silently to say the whole word. 

In order for children to blend and segment they need to have 

• developed knowledge of letter- sound correspondences,  
• be able to hear individual phonemes in words,
• pay attention to the order of graphemes in words drawing upon their visual discrimination skills
• and be able to say each corresponding phoneme.

A child’s ability to hear and identify individual phonemes is described by Willingham (2017) and Seidenberg (2021) as a skill both required for reading and developed by reading; that is, they are dependent on each other.  There is a commonly held belief that there is a step-by-step process in the progression of these skills which means phonemic awareness must come first before starting phonics instruction. However, the research informs us that by teaching phonics we can develop phonemic awareness. Using the letter-sound correspondences provides a visual anchor and can support children to develop these skills. 

The skills of blending and segmenting help develop understanding of the relationship between sounds and letters. One of the key features of teaching phonics to beginning readers is understanding that blending and segmenting are reversible processes. We can think of blending as cracking the code in order to read a word and the opposite process, segmenting involves writing the code in order to spell a word (Rose Review, 2006). The National Reading Panel (2000) found that these skills are the main strategy for developing phonics knowledge and must be frequently modelled and applied. The opportunity to apply phonic knowledge through authentic reading and writing experiences which are meaningful to the child is very important.

Some of the factors for the successful implementation of a phonics programme are summarised by the Education Endowment Foundation (2021) as

• Explicit and systematic
• Include training for educators
• Be responsive to individual needs and set at an appropriate pace
• And take account of children’s wider reading skills and experiences

We have explored the importance of an explicit and systematic approach to teaching phonics as one of our key messages.

Training educators in the learning and teaching of reading is crucial to successful implementation. It is important for schools and educators to build their knowledge of how children learn to read, how to assess and support reading progress using strategies from a range of research-informed practices.Understanding the purpose of different parts of a phonics programme is important to teachers’ understanding of how and when to make appropriate adjustments and adaptations for learners. An educator's enthusiasm in delivering phonics learning and teaching that is enjoyable and engaging, as well as making links for children to its purpose and the goal of reading for pleasure is vitally important.

A successfully implemented programme is responsive. A key component of phonics learning is understanding the needs of learners and tailoring instruction to meet these. Programs which present a fixed sequence of lessons from the beginning to the end of the school year need to be adapted to be responsive to individual needs. It is also important to consider that any adaptations made to programmes are reviewed to evaluate any impact on progress of learning for children. Lessons should be paced appropriately to support and challenge children to make progress.

Knowing and using information about each child’s wider range of reading skills, including the five components of reading, as well as their reading experiences and interests supports children’s reading progress. Paying attention to all aspects of reading is important as these skills plant the seeds for overall reading growth. Implementation that accounts for the wider range of reading skills also implies that phonics work must not come at the expense of building the other four components of reading.

Knowing that all phonics programs are not the same, brings with it the responsibility to use professional judgement to evaluate different programs determining which are based on strong evidence and how they can be used most effectively in their own settings.  

Put Reading First guidance provides the following helpful guidelines for evaluating effective phonics instruction programs.   

Effective programs should

• Help educators explicitly and systematically teach learners the letter sound correspondences, how to break words into sounds and how to blend sounds to form words  
• Help learners understand why they are learning the relationships between letter and sounds and apply their knowledge of phonics as they read words, sentences and text and to their own writing  
• Be adapted to the needs of individual learners, based on assessment  
• Include letter-sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, vocabulary development and the reading of text as well as systematic phonics instruction 

 (Ambruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2006)  

The Education Endowment Foundation (2021) describe several approaches to teaching phonics systematically including

• the analytic approach (which uses word groups, for example, ‘pet’, ‘park’ and ‘push’ starting with the whole word and then analysing or segmenting that word into its corresponding letter sounds)
• the analogy approach (which uses word parts/rimes, for example, ‘night’, ‘fight’ and bright. which children learn to use to identify words they don't know that have similar parts/rimes),
• and synthetic phonics approach (which starts with individual letter or letter combinations and its corresponding sound and children are taught to synthesise or blend these in order to read new words)  

Across the research it is difficult to generalise whether analytic, analogy, synthetic or any other systematic approach to phonics is most effective.  The Education Endowment Foundation (2021) note the difficulty in making comparisons between them because systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) approaches are most prevalent in relation to the others. 

Castles Rastle & Nation (2018) find that despite some evidence that synthetic phonics has clear advantages, further research is required to determine which approaches are most effective. However, there is some research to suggest that systematic synthetic phonic approaches might be particularly beneficial for children from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds and those with vocabulary gaps (McGeown, S. Science of Reading webinar, GTCS, 2018). 

There are of course variations in the content of systematic synthetic programmes and there is some evidence (Vousden et al. 2011, Shapiro & Solity, 2008, Shapiro and Solity 2016) which highlights that the most frequent letter – sound relationships (around 70) should be prioritised particularly for children with low phonological awareness and for those who find learning letter- sound relationships particularly effortful.

Teaching children to decode, through systematic and explicit teaching of phonics, should be the first approach used initially with all children at the beginning of primary school.    However, for some children with persistent difficulties in decoding using phonic knowledge, careful monitoring and assessment may lead teachers to use other approaches to develop word recognition.    

Phonics is an important aspect of early reading instruction but must be taught alongside the other four essential components of reading – phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension – every day in the beginning stages of learning to read. 

Phonics involves the skills of hearing, identifying and using the patterns of sounds to read

Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2006). Put reading first, Kindergarten through Grade Three: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. National Institute for Literacy: The Partnership for Reading.

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51.

Phonics. (2021). Education Endowment Foundation.

Rose, J. (2006). Independent review of the teaching of early reading final report. U.K. Department for Education and Skills.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

The explicit and systematic teaching of phonics should develop understanding of the sounds (phonemes) and corresponding letter/s (graphemes) which represent them

Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2006). Put reading first, Kindergarten through Grade Three: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. National Institute for Literacy: The Partnership for Reading.

Breadmore, H. L., Vardy, E. J., Cunningham, A. J., Kwok, R. K. W., & Carroll, J. M. (2019). Literacy development: Evidence review. London: Education Endowment Foundation.

Buckingham, J., Wheldall, B. R., & Wheldall, K. (2019). Systematic and explicit phonics instruction: A scientific, evidence-based approach to teaching the alphabetic principle. In R. Cox, S. Feez, & L. Beveridge (Eds.), The alphabetic principle and beyond (pp. 49-67). Newtown, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association Australia.

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51.

Hall, K., & Harding, A. (2003). A systematic review of effective literacy teaching in the 4-14 age range of mainstream schooling. Research Evidence in Education Library, London.

International Literacy Association. (2019). Literacy leadership brief: Meeting the challenges of early literacy phonics instruction (No. 9452).

Phonics. (2021). Education Endowment Foundation.

Rose, J. (2006). Independent review of the teaching of early reading: Final report. U.K. Department for Education and Skills.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.

Children should be provided with opportunities to blend, segment and manipulate sounds using their current level of skill

Dempster, M. (n.d.). Scots, Scottish English, and Phonics [Video]. YouTube.

McGuinness, D. (2017). Introduction to the Sound Reading System [Video]. University of South Florida.

National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction.

Nation, K. (2019, November). Reading and comprehension [Video]. GTCS Webinar.

Rose, J. (2006). Independent review of the teaching of early reading final report. U.K. Department for Education and Skills.

Seidenberg, M. (2021, September). Reading Meeting, Part 3: Reading, Learning, and Instruction [Video].

Willingham, D. T. (2017). The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach Understanding How the Mind Reads. John Wiley and Sons

Successful implementation of a phonics programme relies on a number of factors

Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Improving literacy in Key Stage 1.

The approach taken to teaching phonics should have a strong evidence base

Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2006). Put reading first, kindergarten through grade three: The research building blocks for teaching children to read (p. 15). National Institute for Literacy: The Partnership for Reading.

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51.

Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Improving literacy in Key Stage 1.

Grant, M. (2014). Longitudinal study from Reception to Year 2 (2010-2013) and summary of an earlier longitudinal study from Reception to Year 6 (1997-2004).

Shapiro, L. R., & Solity, J. (2008). Delivering phonological and phonics training within whole class teaching. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 597–620.

Shapiro, L. R., & Solity, J. (2016). Differing effects of two synthetic phonics programmes on early reading development. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 182–203.

Video: Dr. Sarah McGeown, The science of reading [Webinar]. GTCS Webinar. (2018, December).

Vousden, J. I., Ellefson, M. R., Solity, J., & Chater, N. (2011). Simplifying reading: Applying the simplicity principle to reading. Cognitive Science, 35, 34-78.